I installed this on Chrome (running under Fedora 21) and it is quite impressive. Basically browsing certain sites is so much faster since Facebook (I don't even have an account) and Google Analytic's gets blocked. Thanks for that.
The atomic bomb is the destroy anything anywhere no matter what weapon, and one of the few weapons too nasty to actually have much practical use.
That said, Isaac Asimov wrote a very interesting short story about atomic bomb shields. Look it up.
Yet that very same weapon was used in a combat situation and was extremely effective although not very nice, but wars are not very nice to begin with.
From the article I could not find what OS the browsers were running on although it does not take much in the way of brain cells to guess which one. Before anyone points at Safari that browser can be run under Microsoft Windows, Apple OSX and Linux. We also know that the browsers mentioned can also run under Apple OSX, however MS IE does not work on Linux unless you use a virtual machine or do some hacking. It is possible to run MS IE on Android although to be honest I could not find it when I searched the app store and there are quite a few browsers that have the big "e" as their logo.
It is one thing to pawn a browser it is a different thing to pawn the browser and the operating system. The article is not very specific on those details.
Rather than debate this if you have and Android phone or Apple iPhone for that matter go to to the App Store and search for "karaoke", you will find that there are quite a few apps (I counted 250 on Android) dealing with that. Now just for fun why don't you "tap" on an app (don't install unless you want too) and see how many downloads of that app has had.
Basically you are going to see 100's of thousands and even millions of downloads per app so just because you can't see karaoke being that popular I think 10's of millions would disagree with you.
Who would buy/download karaoke for personal use?
If you like watching Japanese Anime you may find the introduction and ending song if there is one set-up with "karaoke" and people do buy the dubbed/subbed anime.
why is this a target for the police when there are plenty of other, and larger, trackers out there? Nothing in this story makes any sense.
It looks like the big corporations want their pound of flesh and they don't care were they get it.
On a side note, do you know it is actually illegal to sing "Happy Birthday" in a public place without paying royalties.to the copyright owners. Now IMHO that makes no sense but the law is definitely on their side.
The definition of "planet" is a fucked up mess that a small group of astronomers threw together with the intent of classifying Pluto as not-a-planet without really thinking it through.
Like it or not humans have been classifying things from the beginning of our species. Yes sometime we get it wrong or not quite right but we do try and refine our classifications using scientific principles.
Neither does Jupiter. There are about 100,000 trojan asteroids in Jupiter's orbit, so it fails the third criteria; "cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit."
That is just nit picking and is covered by the quote (see below) from your reference anyway. Basically all of that cosmic rubble (call them asteroids or chunks of rock if you will) are orbit crossing and are tiny in respect to the planet which is significantly different. None of the eight planets cross each others orbit however "Pluto" does cross Neptune's orbit which makes Pluto fall under a different criteria than what we classify as "normal planet orbital behaviour". Oh before I forget Pluto's orbital plane is different form the orbital plane of the other planets, read into that what you will.
As per your reference I quote:
In the end stages of planet formation, a planet will have "cleared the neighbourhood" of its own orbital zone (see below), meaning it has become gravitationally dominant, and there are no other bodies of comparable size other than its own satellites or those otherwise under its gravitational influence. A large body which meets the other criteria for a planet but has not cleared its neighbourhood is classified as a dwarf planet. This includes Pluto, which shares its orbital neighbourhood with Kuiper belt objects such as the plutinos.
Oh well maybe in the future Pluto will cross Neptune's orbit and Neptune will be waiting for it then the debate will be solved. Of course in a few billion years none of this will matter anyway.
The kernel is shipping in every single one of those android phones. If you guys are basing your decision on whether or not to use Linux vs BSD servers based on whether or not the releases are named, I think Linux can probaly do ok without you.
I concur I did not want to comment any further for what I consider a troll. Personally I don't have any issue with BSD Unix since it actually was the first Unix I ever worked on in 1980 but many business or at least those that want to make money want an OS they know is going to be supported and the track record of the company that is going to support that OS.
But well, it's just the kernel, so one could just use the number, but damn this sort of stuff is exactly why linux will never be taken that seriously, even if it is free./rant off
Over one billion android smartphone and tablet users world wide might disagree with you and that is over 65% of the market.
Back when I was reading slashdot in the 90s I was assured it was just weeks away from taking over the world. Now I'm looking for any serious answer as to why it's anything more than "work for embedded device manuafcturers without getting paid."
I suggest you look at your smartphone or tablet, over one billion people might disagree with you.
Yes, exactly. I'm running Debian Jessie and I'm not really comfortable with binary logs.
Have you ever heard to utmp and wtmp they are binary logs?
How do you think you can read an ASCII file since in reality it is a binary file? Don't believe me well try to open an ASCI file without the appropriate software to open that file. Examples of that software are: cat, more, less, pg, view, vi, vim, gvim, emacs, - I could go on if you like. Like it or not ASCII files are a binary file consisting of ones and zeros.
Reading so called binary logs with the appropriate software is no more different than reading an ASCII file with the appropriate software.
"it does not respect the UNIX way of doing things" IS a valid technical argument.
What pray tell is the UNIX way of doing things?
I have been using Unix (BSD, Ultrix, Tru64, AIX, SunOS, IRIX, HPUX, Solaris, SCO (when they were the good guys) and others) for over 35 years and what you have just said would get you laughed out of a design meeting.
There is one thing that could be done. Pull CO2 out of the atmosphere on a large scale. That would take enormous amounts of carbon-free electricity.
Where do you suggest we put all this CO2? Over millions of years the excess CO2 of our planet was removed by plants and safely locked away until we decided to dig it up and released it. What is really needed is a balance but how to determine that balance and even implement it that is the question although planting more trees would help.
Basically we need to be fairly energy neutral and a balance between producing bio-fuels and consuming that fuel is essential. All fossil fuels do is produce more CO2 and other products although even this can be offset with some thought.
Please note I am well aware the pluses and minuses of bio-fuels not to mention some ridicules and possibly criminal choices of the type of fuels for certain areas. It is very important to decide on the appropriate bio-fuel that can be relatively cheap to produce and appropriate for area. In some areas such as those with high population densities growing of bio-fuels impacts on the growing of food so some sort of balance is needed and that is not easy when greed takes over.
Yes, let mother nature take care of us. All hail our Goddess Earth.
Actually Mother Nature could not give a hoot if our species lives or dies, likewise our solar system, galaxy or even the universe. The entities that should give a damn are our own species although that may be asking to much.
Re:on starting with smaller-scale albedo modificat
on
What If We Lost the Sky?
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I suppose the first thing to ask is "What can go wrong?"
Our planet maintains a balance so far and if you start to upset that balance then you are going to have two possibilities. 1) The planet goes through a runaway greenhouse effect and effectively gets far too hot, although probably not as hot as Venus. 2) The planet goes into deep freeze and this has happened before. We can actually thank volcanic action for reversing this process.
I can understand concern over potential global warming and am in favour of reducing green house gas build up or better still to have a balance between consuming liquid fuels (example: practical bio-fuels without the hype) and growing them. Burning fossil fuels without some sort of balance is asking for trouble. Solar energy in all its forms should be seriously considered and the most suitable for each region implemented if possible and practical by all nations, although IMO that is basically asking the impossible but at least first world countries should set the example.
Another area to look at is the design and building of housing that is energy efficient in that there would be less need for heating and cooling. Practical solar solutions should also be considered here as well.
The things I have just mentioned are easily achievable with our current technology and would go a very long way in stabilising the climate of our planet. Of course this is but a pipe dream since we are a short lived species but if our life potential could be made to say 200 or more healthy years then most people in power would realise that they and not just their children are going have to put up with radical changes if they make stupid decisions. Of course human greed and fanaticism can still blind some even in the face of imminent disaster.
Not true, baseball is also very popular, but cricket gets the most media attention. Likewise ball sports like Rugby League and Australian rules over Soccer although strangely soccer is well reported when Australia in in the finals.
I am currently investigating alternative operating systems because I don't want systemd on my boxes.
I have been running Fedora for years and basically have no issue with "systemd" since there is a GUI and command line for control. Unless you can explain why systemd is bad what you have said would be a cause for ridicule in a decision making meeting.
As an "old guy" I don't have any issue with Unix in general or Linux for that matter, I learn what is appropriate and change accordingly. I don't think the server market considers Linux a toy either since it is very popular.
The QA is missing. I don't use Linux because it is more buggy than Windows. Pretty simple really.
In what way is Linux more buggy than Windows? Sorry I call troll on that until you can come up with an explanation for that statement. Pretty simple really.
Sony bases the PlayStation 3 and 4 OSes on FreeBSD. And the Xbox runs a variant of Windows.
Other than some Android-based handhelds and micro-consoles, there's next to no Linux in gaming consoles.
Both BSD and Linux are free however their licenses are different. The main reason that BSD is used in the PlayStation is it's license is very permissive and open while the license (GNU) for Linux is much more restrictive.
No Linux in gaming consoles? Ok I will agree with you if you are only considering Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo consoles and/or hand-helds, however there are huge number of games for Android and IOS devices. Of course for consoles, hand-helds and smart phones/tablets there are some good games, not so good games and some that putting it politely "stink", however that is in the eyes of the gamer since a game that is liked by one group may not be liked by another group.
I would even go as far as saying that at any given time world wide there are more people playing games on Android and IOS devices than they are playing games on a console or PC. This is not to say I think console or PC games gaming is bad it is just that it is so much easier to play a game (simple or otherwise) on a portable than on a laptop or console handheld when you are commuting or even just waiting for something while you are away from your home or work.
Don't believe me get on a train or bus some time, if you don't do that then go to a food hall or restaurant or any place people are waiting and look at what they are doing with their Android or IOS devices. Ok you may find a few "talkers" or "rabid texters" but the majority will be playing a game of some sort.
I've been using Linux (Fedora to be precise) for over sixteen years and for the last seven years have been using it as my primary desktop. As for dual booting, I found that if you really want a Linux desktop then forget it, since unless you are really serious you usually end up back on MS Windows. Of course if you are a gamer and play "Games for Windows" then you may as well stick with a Microsoft OS. Oh sure you could run Wine and/or Play for Sure but it is really simpler to just stick with a Microsoft OS. As for me I have no interest in PC gaming preferring console gaming instead.
If you work for a company that insists you need a PC with a Microsoft OS then you are pretty well stuck. Fortunately I was senior Electrical Engineer and could dictate what OS I wanted to run, however most people don't have that power and as for working with people in co-operative projects who used Microsoft apps I had no problems. For those apps that really did require Microsoft centric applications I could always fire up a virtual machine but in the majority of cases my Linux centric applications worked just fine. Did this annoy some managers? Yes it did but there was nothing they could do about it since I could always do what was required of me.
To recap, the year of the Linux desktop has been around for many years now, it is just that most people are normally stuck with the Microsoft Tax when they purchase a new machine and even at work most managers insist that people use a Microsoft OS so basically the ordinary person is pretty much convinced that MS Windows is the only OS for PC's that is available. Of course once you start to look at smart phones the shoe is on the other foot since Linux followed by IOS (based on BSD) dominate there. Are most people aware of this? Well no they are not and in the majority of cases they don't care as long as the "magic":-) machine will do everything that is required of it.
In the audio chain people talk about sound waves affected by the cable.
As An Electrical Engineer this is news to me, Sound waves don't propagate down a speaker cable, electromagnetic waves almost at the speed of light do. The only time you will get sound is actually from the speaker not the amplifier or the cable connecting to the speaker.
In the digital audio chain people talk about jitter, temporally accurate rising and falling pulses, and transmission lines.
Maybe if the transmission line is very long and has a high impedance. Actually you can see something like this if you buy a HDMI 1.2 or less cable and try to display 1080p to your HDTV. You would be crazy not to have at the very least a HDMI 1.3 or better cable and cost wise you are only looking at a few dollars, any more than that and you are wasting your money.
In the power supply side people talk about shielding and noise from the power grid.
Yes it is possible to get 50Hz or 60 Hz "hum" (depends on your country) introduced into the audio equipment but any competent manufacture fixed that problem many years ago. Shielding your speaker cable is only advisable if you are next to a high power transmission line and if that is the case I suggest you move.
If anyone is contemplating getting a cable like this I would suggest a HDMI transmitter and receiver instead which IMHO is much more useful. I do think the article suggestion of "snake oil" is very appropriate, still you will find IMO suckers who will buy it.
If we accept it's about cleaner air. And we assume that it burns X% cleaner. And we assume that we will burn X% more fuel over the same distance... What have we gained? I have seen good arguments for using biodiesel but not ethanol.
I have a diesel car and I get excellent economy as well as producing less green house gas than an equivalent petrol engine. My car is able to take 5% bio-diesel (B5) as per manufacturers guidelines however in Sydney Australia I find it almost impossible to get B5 or any bio-diesel for that matter. Of course if I had a petrol car I can get 10% Ethanol (E10) which is normally cheaper (Government/Taxpayer subsidised) than diesel although because I get a better fuel economy the price evens out.
Actually even though many people will seen E10 as cheaper than diesel many are not aware (or don't care) that while a hike in petrol can be felt by the petrol consuming motorist a hike in the price of diesel is actually felt by everyone since all haulage in Australia and in the Americas is by trucks that normally have diesel engines. Even most fishing boats and smaller sea going craft use diesel mainly because it is economical and is a much safer fuel. As an example (don't do this at home) throw a lighted match into a can filled with petrol and you better have a decent fire extinguisher handy. Do the same with a can of diesel and it will most likely go out. Don't try this in an enclosed space since the resulting petrol fume explosion may be hazardous to your health.
It is possible and very economical to grow crops and even use animal fat for bio-diesel providing you have the land and Australia has the land which is not that much smaller tan the continental USA. However our government seems to prefer using ethanol in petrol possibly due to the lobbying of the sugar producers which I suppose could be likened to the corn lobbyists in the US.
I should point out that Australia has a fairly small population (approx 24 million) and a population density of approximately 3.2/square km compared to the USA which has a population density of 35/square km. It is even worse for smaller countries with larger population and even worse population density (see the following ).
The problem with growing crops for bio-fuel is that you need large areas of land and many countries with a large population density may should not attempt this or at least go for limited production. In the short term these countries may be ok but whether the long term growth and sustainability is feasible that remains to be seen.
Slashdot Mirror
I installed this on Chrome (running under Fedora 21) and it is quite impressive. Basically browsing certain sites is so much faster since Facebook (I don't even have an account) and Google Analytic's gets blocked. Thanks for that.
The atomic bomb is the destroy anything anywhere no matter what weapon, and one of the few weapons too nasty to actually have much practical use. That said, Isaac Asimov wrote a very interesting short story about atomic bomb shields. Look it up.
Yet that very same weapon was used in a combat situation and was extremely effective although not very nice, but wars are not very nice to begin with.
From the article I could not find what OS the browsers were running on although it does not take much in the way of brain cells to guess which one. Before anyone points at Safari that browser can be run under Microsoft Windows, Apple OSX and Linux. We also know that the browsers mentioned can also run under Apple OSX, however MS IE does not work on Linux unless you use a virtual machine or do some hacking. It is possible to run MS IE on Android although to be honest I could not find it when I searched the app store and there are quite a few browsers that have the big "e" as their logo.
It is one thing to pawn a browser it is a different thing to pawn the browser and the operating system. The article is not very specific on those details.
Err lets see!
Google Chrome: Version 41.0.2272.89 (64-bit) - Check
Firefox: Mozilla Firefox 36.0 - Check
Konqueror: 4.14.4 - Check
Microsoft IE: ???? - Nope not there
Hmm better check my system:
- Operating System: GNU/Linux 3.18.9-200.fc21.x86_64 - Err!
- System Release: Fedora 21 - The alarm bells are ringing
Well colour me surprised that's why I couldn't find Microsoft Internet Explorer \(^o^)/
I cannot imagine karaoke being that popular.
Rather than debate this if you have and Android phone or Apple iPhone for that matter go to to the App Store and search for "karaoke", you will find that there are quite a few apps (I counted 250 on Android) dealing with that. Now just for fun why don't you "tap" on an app (don't install unless you want too) and see how many downloads of that app has had.
Basically you are going to see 100's of thousands and even millions of downloads per app so just because you can't see karaoke being that popular I think 10's of millions would disagree with you.
Who would buy/download karaoke for personal use?
If you like watching Japanese Anime you may find the introduction and ending song if there is one set-up with "karaoke" and people do buy the dubbed/subbed anime.
why is this a target for the police when there are plenty of other, and larger, trackers out there? Nothing in this story makes any sense.
It looks like the big corporations want their pound of flesh and they don't care were they get it.
On a side note, do you know it is actually illegal to sing "Happy Birthday" in a public place without paying royalties.to the copyright owners. Now IMHO that makes no sense but the law is definitely on their side.
Let's just stipulate that the answer to every summary-ending question is "No."
Is this the year of the Linux Desktop?
Been using a Linux Desktop professionally (no dual booting) for over seven years and I have not missed MS Windows.
Is this the year of Wearables?
Who cares it's your choice, but what has this to do with the Linux Desktop?
Will Mars One ever land people on Mars?
I think I will stay on a planet with a breathable atmosphere.
Is this the year of the Linux Game Console?
Over a billion of android users (smart phone and tablet) would like a word with you.
Is this the moment when Ruby on Rails takes over the programming market?
Who cares one way or another.
Yeah, like that is going to happen. Once they realize there is no money in linux games, that will be the end of that.
This may be the case for the Linux desktop but for Android (Linux kernel) that is a totally different story.
The definition of "planet" is a fucked up mess that a small group of astronomers threw together with the intent of classifying Pluto as not-a-planet without really thinking it through.
Like it or not humans have been classifying things from the beginning of our species. Yes sometime we get it wrong or not quite right but we do try and refine our classifications using scientific principles.
Neither does Jupiter. There are about 100,000 trojan asteroids in Jupiter's orbit, so it fails the third criteria; "cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit."
That is just nit picking and is covered by the quote (see below) from your reference anyway. Basically all of that cosmic rubble (call them asteroids or chunks of rock if you will) are orbit crossing and are tiny in respect to the planet which is significantly different. None of the eight planets cross each others orbit however "Pluto" does cross Neptune's orbit which makes Pluto fall under a different criteria than what we classify as "normal planet orbital behaviour". Oh before I forget Pluto's orbital plane is different form the orbital plane of the other planets, read into that what you will.
As per your reference I quote:
In the end stages of planet formation, a planet will have "cleared the neighbourhood" of its own orbital zone (see below), meaning it has become gravitationally dominant, and there are no other bodies of comparable size other than its own satellites or those otherwise under its gravitational influence. A large body which meets the other criteria for a planet but has not cleared its neighbourhood is classified as a dwarf planet. This includes Pluto, which shares its orbital neighbourhood with Kuiper belt objects such as the plutinos.
Oh well maybe in the future Pluto will cross Neptune's orbit and Neptune will be waiting for it then the debate will be solved. Of course in a few billion years none of this will matter anyway.
The kernel is shipping in every single one of those android phones. If you guys are basing your decision on whether or not to use Linux vs BSD servers based on whether or not the releases are named, I think Linux can probaly do ok without you.
I concur I did not want to comment any further for what I consider a troll. Personally I don't have any issue with BSD Unix since it actually was the first Unix I ever worked on in 1980 but many business or at least those that want to make money want an OS they know is going to be supported and the track record of the company that is going to support that OS.
Ah the troll is strong with this one!
But well, it's just the kernel, so one could just use the number, but damn this sort of stuff is exactly why linux will never be taken that seriously, even if it is free. /rant off
Over one billion android smartphone and tablet users world wide might disagree with you and that is over 65% of the market.
Back when I was reading slashdot in the 90s I was assured it was just weeks away from taking over the world. Now I'm looking for any serious answer as to why it's anything more than "work for embedded device manuafcturers without getting paid."
I suggest you look at your smartphone or tablet, over one billion people might disagree with you.
v4.0? Well, it won't be long before it's up to v39 if Firefox is any indicator.
Chrome is already up to 40 whilst konqueror is up to 14 (both web browsers if you are interested) if that is any help.
Yes, exactly. I'm running Debian Jessie and I'm not really comfortable with binary logs.
Have you ever heard to utmp and wtmp they are binary logs?
How do you think you can read an ASCII file since in reality it is a binary file? Don't believe me well try to open an ASCI file without the appropriate software to open that file. Examples of that software are: cat, more, less, pg, view, vi, vim, gvim, emacs, - I could go on if you like. Like it or not ASCII files are a binary file consisting of ones and zeros.
Reading so called binary logs with the appropriate software is no more different than reading an ASCII file with the appropriate software.
"it does not respect the UNIX way of doing things" IS a valid technical argument.
What pray tell is the UNIX way of doing things?
I have been using Unix (BSD, Ultrix, Tru64, AIX, SunOS, IRIX, HPUX, Solaris, SCO (when they were the good guys) and others) for over 35 years and what you have just said would get you laughed out of a design meeting.
There is one thing that could be done. Pull CO2 out of the atmosphere on a large scale. That would take enormous amounts of carbon-free electricity.
Where do you suggest we put all this CO2? Over millions of years the excess CO2 of our planet was removed by plants and safely locked away until we decided to dig it up and released it. What is really needed is a balance but how to determine that balance and even implement it that is the question although planting more trees would help.
Basically we need to be fairly energy neutral and a balance between producing bio-fuels and consuming that fuel is essential. All fossil fuels do is produce more CO2 and other products although even this can be offset with some thought.
Please note I am well aware the pluses and minuses of bio-fuels not to mention some ridicules and possibly criminal choices of the type of fuels for certain areas. It is very important to decide on the appropriate bio-fuel that can be relatively cheap to produce and appropriate for area. In some areas such as those with high population densities growing of bio-fuels impacts on the growing of food so some sort of balance is needed and that is not easy when greed takes over.
Yes, let mother nature take care of us. All hail our Goddess Earth.
Actually Mother Nature could not give a hoot if our species lives or dies, likewise our solar system, galaxy or even the universe. The entities that should give a damn are our own species although that may be asking to much.
I suppose the first thing to ask is "What can go wrong?"
Our planet maintains a balance so far and if you start to upset that balance then you are going to have two possibilities. 1) The planet goes through a runaway greenhouse effect and effectively gets far too hot, although probably not as hot as Venus. 2) The planet goes into deep freeze and this has happened before. We can actually thank volcanic action for reversing this process.
I can understand concern over potential global warming and am in favour of reducing green house gas build up or better still to have a balance between consuming liquid fuels (example: practical bio-fuels without the hype) and growing them. Burning fossil fuels without some sort of balance is asking for trouble. Solar energy in all its forms should be seriously considered and the most suitable for each region implemented if possible and practical by all nations, although IMO that is basically asking the impossible but at least first world countries should set the example.
Another area to look at is the design and building of housing that is energy efficient in that there would be less need for heating and cooling. Practical solar solutions should also be considered here as well.
The things I have just mentioned are easily achievable with our current technology and would go a very long way in stabilising the climate of our planet. Of course this is but a pipe dream since we are a short lived species but if our life potential could be made to say 200 or more healthy years then most people in power would realise that they and not just their children are going have to put up with radical changes if they make stupid decisions. Of course human greed and fanaticism can still blind some even in the face of imminent disaster.
Aussies don'i play baseball, they play cricket.
Not true, baseball is also very popular, but cricket gets the most media attention. Likewise ball sports like Rugby League and Australian rules over Soccer although strangely soccer is well reported when Australia in in the finals.
I am currently investigating alternative operating systems because I don't want systemd on my boxes.
I have been running Fedora for years and basically have no issue with "systemd" since there is a GUI and command line for control. Unless you can explain why systemd is bad what you have said would be a cause for ridicule in a decision making meeting.
As an "old guy" I don't have any issue with Unix in general or Linux for that matter, I learn what is appropriate and change accordingly. I don't think the server market considers Linux a toy either since it is very popular.
The GPL license offers absolutely NO direct benefit to companies that need a Unix-like OS to put in their products
Yet many companies produce Android devices and some of those devices are HDTV's.
The QA is missing. I don't use Linux because it is more buggy than Windows. Pretty simple really.
In what way is Linux more buggy than Windows? Sorry I call troll on that until you can come up with an explanation for that statement. Pretty simple really.
Sony bases the PlayStation 3 and 4 OSes on FreeBSD. And the Xbox runs a variant of Windows.
Other than some Android-based handhelds and micro-consoles, there's next to no Linux in gaming consoles.
Both BSD and Linux are free however their licenses are different. The main reason that BSD is used in the PlayStation is it's license is very permissive and open while the license (GNU) for Linux is much more restrictive.
No Linux in gaming consoles? Ok I will agree with you if you are only considering Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo consoles and/or hand-helds, however there are huge number of games for Android and IOS devices. Of course for consoles, hand-helds and smart phones/tablets there are some good games, not so good games and some that putting it politely "stink", however that is in the eyes of the gamer since a game that is liked by one group may not be liked by another group.
I would even go as far as saying that at any given time world wide there are more people playing games on Android and IOS devices than they are playing games on a console or PC. This is not to say I think console or PC games gaming is bad it is just that it is so much easier to play a game (simple or otherwise) on a portable than on a laptop or console handheld when you are commuting or even just waiting for something while you are away from your home or work.
Don't believe me get on a train or bus some time, if you don't do that then go to a food hall or restaurant or any place people are waiting and look at what they are doing with their Android or IOS devices. Ok you may find a few "talkers" or "rabid texters" but the majority will be playing a game of some sort.
I've been using Linux (Fedora to be precise) for over sixteen years and for the last seven years have been using it as my primary desktop. As for dual booting, I found that if you really want a Linux desktop then forget it, since unless you are really serious you usually end up back on MS Windows. Of course if you are a gamer and play "Games for Windows" then you may as well stick with a Microsoft OS. Oh sure you could run Wine and/or Play for Sure but it is really simpler to just stick with a Microsoft OS. As for me I have no interest in PC gaming preferring console gaming instead.
If you work for a company that insists you need a PC with a Microsoft OS then you are pretty well stuck. Fortunately I was senior Electrical Engineer and could dictate what OS I wanted to run, however most people don't have that power and as for working with people in co-operative projects who used Microsoft apps I had no problems. For those apps that really did require Microsoft centric applications I could always fire up a virtual machine but in the majority of cases my Linux centric applications worked just fine. Did this annoy some managers? Yes it did but there was nothing they could do about it since I could always do what was required of me.
To recap, the year of the Linux desktop has been around for many years now, it is just that most people are normally stuck with the Microsoft Tax when they purchase a new machine and even at work most managers insist that people use a Microsoft OS so basically the ordinary person is pretty much convinced that MS Windows is the only OS for PC's that is available. Of course once you start to look at smart phones the shoe is on the other foot since Linux followed by IOS (based on BSD) dominate there. Are most people aware of this? Well no they are not and in the majority of cases they don't care as long as the "magic" :-) machine will do everything that is required of it.
In the audio chain people talk about sound waves affected by the cable.
As An Electrical Engineer this is news to me, Sound waves don't propagate down a speaker cable, electromagnetic waves almost at the speed of light do. The only time you will get sound is actually from the speaker not the amplifier or the cable connecting to the speaker.
In the digital audio chain people talk about jitter, temporally accurate rising and falling pulses, and transmission lines.
Maybe if the transmission line is very long and has a high impedance. Actually you can see something like this if you buy a HDMI 1.2 or less cable and try to display 1080p to your HDTV. You would be crazy not to have at the very least a HDMI 1.3 or better cable and cost wise you are only looking at a few dollars, any more than that and you are wasting your money.
In the power supply side people talk about shielding and noise from the power grid.
Yes it is possible to get 50Hz or 60 Hz "hum" (depends on your country) introduced into the audio equipment but any competent manufacture fixed that problem many years ago. Shielding your speaker cable is only advisable if you are next to a high power transmission line and if that is the case I suggest you move.
If anyone is contemplating getting a cable like this I would suggest a HDMI transmitter and receiver instead which IMHO is much more useful. I do think the article suggestion of "snake oil" is very appropriate, still you will find IMO suckers who will buy it.
If we accept it's about cleaner air. And we assume that it burns X% cleaner. And we assume that we will burn X% more fuel over the same distance ... What have we gained? I have seen good arguments for using biodiesel but not ethanol.
I have a diesel car and I get excellent economy as well as producing less green house gas than an equivalent petrol engine. My car is able to take 5% bio-diesel (B5) as per manufacturers guidelines however in Sydney Australia I find it almost impossible to get B5 or any bio-diesel for that matter. Of course if I had a petrol car I can get 10% Ethanol (E10) which is normally cheaper (Government/Taxpayer subsidised) than diesel although because I get a better fuel economy the price evens out.
Actually even though many people will seen E10 as cheaper than diesel many are not aware (or don't care) that while a hike in petrol can be felt by the petrol consuming motorist a hike in the price of diesel is actually felt by everyone since all haulage in Australia and in the Americas is by trucks that normally have diesel engines. Even most fishing boats and smaller sea going craft use diesel mainly because it is economical and is a much safer fuel. As an example (don't do this at home) throw a lighted match into a can filled with petrol and you better have a decent fire extinguisher handy. Do the same with a can of diesel and it will most likely go out. Don't try this in an enclosed space since the resulting petrol fume explosion may be hazardous to your health.
It is possible and very economical to grow crops and even use animal fat for bio-diesel providing you have the land and Australia has the land which is not that much smaller tan the continental USA. However our government seems to prefer using ethanol in petrol possibly due to the lobbying of the sugar producers which I suppose could be likened to the corn lobbyists in the US.
I should point out that Australia has a fairly small population (approx 24 million) and a population density of approximately 3.2/square km compared to the USA which has a population density of 35/square km. It is even worse for smaller countries with larger population and even worse population density (see the following ).
The problem with growing crops for bio-fuel is that you need large areas of land and many countries with a large population density may should not attempt this or at least go for limited production. In the short term these countries may be ok but whether the long term growth and sustainability is feasible that remains to be seen.
It's all about corporate welfare.
I could not agree more.