I reckon theres a Slashdot survey on the best way to explore:
How would you prefer to travel?
a. A blue Police Box that can traverse space and time, with a hot British former 'teen star' that is obviously in love with your weirdness.
b. A big ancient ring that can take you anywhere where there is a corresponding ancient ring, but you keep bumping into Egyption dog people who try to kill you.
c. A large dinner shaped spaceship that does warp factors, but you get to shoot at klingons and make sexy time with green chicks (remember its all about the Journey!) Just dont get assimilated by Bjork!
d. Travelling with the Robinson family and a stupid robot that shouts "Danger" long after it stopped being funny. Oh and a pedophile.
e. In a ship that can make the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs - With a great big hairy Wooky and a gay robot.
e. Spending time on the only ship to have survived an attack by robots with KITT in their face, where it is a daily battle to stay alive.
f. On a moon that was flung out of orbit by a massive thermonuclear explosion initiated by the build up of magnetic radiation, which there is much debate as to it being caused by global warming.
g. Traveling across universes with a guy that looks like Mike Moore, where each new universe you 'slide' into is exactly like being on LSD.
h. On a ship with a dorky hologram an evolved cat, a computer with an IQ of 6000 and a very stupid robot, but every day is hilarious!
I. The space shuttle. (yawn)
You are just lucky the guy that invented fire didn't wrap it up in perpetual IP / copyright. He spend days inventing that, putting in all kinds of effort.
>>> They could install flare launchers on the planes, like military jets
They could, but flares are essentially an explosive and require allot more precautions. They also require significant operator management, including the requirement to maneuver the aircraft drastically to 'break lock' from the aircraft, hoping like heck the missile locks to a flare.
Also, Flares are far more likely to cause fires in dry areas especially if one is 'punched out' due to a false alarm. (they also get 'used up' and one counter-counter measure is to trick the aircrafts self protection system into firing off all its flares before firing your missile at it.
Fighters use flares primarily for the combat phases of flight, and are usually turned off for the landing and takeoff phase for safety reasons. This DIRCM system, while a total waste of money, negates most of the downfalls of flares, and requires almost no operator input. (They just need to turn it on and off at the right times)
>>>"A shoulder fired rocket can not shoot that high......So... they should just install them at big airports to protect all jets coming in or out."
From here"Light to carry and relatively easy to operate, the FIM-92 Stinger is a passive surface-to-air missile, shoulder-fired by a single operator, although officially it requires two. The FIM-92B can attack aircraft at a range of up to 15,700 feet (4800 m) and at altitudes between 600 and 12,500 feet (180 and 3800 m)."
So yeah, You are in danger anytime you're under 12,500 feet. Which is quite a large radius around an airport for the take off and approach phases, which could be behind hills, or miles out to sea.
>>>> I honestly don't know how the hell you would detect such a missile tracking you
They detect the flame out the back of the missle. Chemicals given off by the rocket motor burn across the spectrum (visible, UV and Infra-red). The optical sensors on the aircraft pick up the burning, specifically in the UV range. Sunlight in this spectrum does not get through the upper atmosphere, so it is essentially "dark". Only a few other things emit at this range are things like arc-welders, but software can be used to eliminate these to improve the false alarm rate.
>>> "As far as I knew, even military jets have no early warning of IR missiles. "
Oh yes they do.
>>> "Dick move or not I'm sure I'm not the only "dick" that does this",
These people are very good statisticians. They know exactly how many people are 'dicks' like you, and I'm sure if they were pushed they could probably pick you out in a crowd.
>>>"No and I would not say anything and I would just laugh if I saw you checking if these airport doors were locked and several heavily armed men drag you off for a little question and rectal examination time."
I wouldn't try the doors either. But, if I saw one open then I'd tell someone, just the same as when I've baggage unattended for a suspiciously lengthy period.
But relating this to the article, and this is where the contention starts: The web doesn't easily discriminate between 'seeing the door ajar' vs 'checking to see if the door is unlocked'. And one takes risks when bringing either to the attention of the 'authorities'. Thus my analogy falls down as I'm not about to raise a broken website with anyone (its not like I'm going to wait on their 1-800 number for 45 minutes) - I'll just carry on with my day.
Back in the day when downloading music was free* I downloaded music like a storm. I'd listen to the music to see if I wanted to purchase that artists CD. Then, if the music was what i was after, I'd BUY the album. I found downloading entire albums a waste of time as I usually never got the full album perfectly all at a high bit rate without errors, (and if I did it was rare). Even If I did get the 'perfect album' I still wanted to own the physical media - the cover art, the CD. Owning the actual item is important to me, and at $10 for a CD it's pretty cheap too. I've always seen downloaded music as disposable.
Now, without downloading, I'm not that exposed to new music - i tend to just listen to what I have. (i listen to NPR on the radio too and from work, so don't get much exposure to the new mainstream stuff - and don't care - its shite.) The only CD I've bought in the last two years was Daikaiju, and that was from listening to the Escape Pod podcast who use it for their intro.
My point is: In my case, my ability to download music for free increased my spending on CD's.
----
* By free I mean I didn't know it was illegal or that anyone would come after me - just like the rest of the masses who used Napster and similar 'services'.
I just have one question... where is the article about the telco's pouring money into infrastructure to increase our bandwidth to support these new services?
It may not be a truck, but it looks like they'll be shipping plenty of things to you.... let's just hope you know you're signing up for them...
From their privacy page:
Log Files
Other Use of Information
Adesso may share aggregated demographic information with its partners and advertisers. This aggregated information is not linked to any personal information that can identify any individual person. Adesso may use an outside shipping company to ship orders and uses a credit card processing company to bill users for goods and services. These companies have access to user information in order to perform their functions, but these companies are not authorized to use personal information for any other purposes.
Adesso may partner with other parties to provide specific goods and services. When you sign up for such goods or services, Adesso will share names or other contact information that is necessary for the third party to provide these goods and services. Adesso does not authorize third party providers to use personally identifiable information except for the purpose related to these good or services.
>>>> "Actually if you look at JAXA, almost everything they have done is a failure."
I'd be interested if you have any information on their failures. One of the companies I've been dealing with has been doing work for them, and although I gave this company a pretty crappy quality write-up, my upper management decided they'd stay as they must be doing 'something right' if they're doing work for JAXA....
I'm in Texas so you are talking about those 3 weeks they call winter, right?
but seriously, in summer the A/C is running 24/7 to keep the house livable, and my electric bill is already between $350 to $550 a month from spring to autumn and we already get charged more due to 'high demand' during these months (IMHO It's fuckin gouging). Even with off peak rates, i cant see it being all that cost effective with that 'summer demand gouge' added on. (if what you say is true about capacity, then WTF is up with this charge????)
I guess I would expect the cost charging the car to be similar to a tank of gas, so that'll add another $100 month at least, and i'm totally reluctant to 'put all my eggs in one basket' with energy costs.
I'm with TXU and i'm sure there is some surcharge on my bill in summer 'to discourage usage during peak season'. Could the grid even cope if people went plug-in rapidly?.
>>> "Yeah... it's called "bad vibes" and they destroy creativity."
Which probably explains all the crappy films we've been seeing in recent years - no creativity, just a re-hash of 'templates' with same/different actors / CGI.
Hey this might actually explain why Stalone is doing that new Rocky movie:
Stalone: "Where is my royalty check?"
MGM: "ah, about that... you have to do another movie if you want that money we owe you..."
Stalone: "ADRIAN!!"
>>>"They buy Sealand and become a sovereign nation to avoid prosecution. The RIAA, MPAA and BSA all band together and officially buy the U.S. government and military/industrial complex."
OR, they just simply hire Blackwater to blow up Sealand.
As you know, there's been a lot of speculation about The Hobbit. We are often asked about when or if this film will ever be made. We have always responded that we would be very interested in making the film - if it were offered to us to make.
You may also be aware that Wingnut Films has bought a lawsuit against New Line, which resulted from an audit we undertook on part of the income of The Fellowship of the Ring. Our attitude with the lawsuit has always been that since it's largely based on differences of opinion about certain accounting practices, we would like an independent body - whether it be a judge, a jury, or a mediator, to look at the issues and make an unbiased ruling. We are happy to accept whatever that ruling is. In our minds, it's not much more complex than that and that's exactly why film contracts include right-to-audit clauses.
However, we have always said that we do not want to discuss The Hobbit with New Line until the lawsuit over New Line's accounting practices is resolved. This is simple common sense - you cannot be in a relationship with a film studio, making a complex, expensive movie and dealing with all the pressures and responsibilities that come with the job, while an unresolved lawsuit exists.
We have also said that we do not want to tie settlement of the lawsuit to making a film of The Hobbit. In other words, we would have to agree to make The Hobbit as a condition of New Line settling our lawsuit. In our minds this is not the right reason to make a film and if a film of The Hobbit went ahead on this basis, it would be doomed. Deciding to make a movie should come from the heart - it's not a matter of business convenience. When you agree to make a film, you're taking on a massive commitment and you need to be driven by an absolute passion to want to get the story on screen. It's that passion, and passion alone, that gives the movie its imagination and heart. To us it is not a cold-blooded business decision.
A couple of months ago there was a flurry of Hobbit news in the media. MGM, who own a portion of the film rights in The Hobbit, publicly stated they wanted to make the film with us. It was a little weird at the time because nobody from New Line had ever spoken to us about making a film of The Hobbit and the media had some fun with that. Within a week or two of those stories, our Manager Ken Kamins got a call from the co-president of New Line Cinema, Michael Lynne, who in essence told Ken that the way to settle the lawsuit was to get a commitment from us to make the Hobbit, because "that's how these things are done". Michael Lynne said we would stand to make much more money if we tied the lawsuit and the movie deal together and this may well be true, but it's still the worst reason in the world to agree to make a film.
Several years ago, Mark Ordesky told us that New Line have rights to make not just The Hobbit but a second "LOTR prequel", covering the events leading up to those depicted in LOTR. Since then, we've always assumed that we would be asked to make The Hobbit and possibly this second film, back to back, as we did the original movies. We assumed that our lawsuit with the studio would come to a natural conclusion and we would then be free to discuss our ideas with the studio, get excited and jump on board. We've assumed that we would possibly get started on development and design next year, whilst filming The Lovely Bones. We even had a meeting planned with MGM executives to talk through our schedule.
However last week, Mark Ordesky called Ken and told him that New Line would no longer be requiring our services on the Hobbit and the LOTR 'prequel'. This was a courtesy call to let us know that the studio was now actively looking to hire another filmmaker for both projects.
Slashdot Mirror
I reckon theres a Slashdot survey on the best way to explore:
How would you prefer to travel?
a. A blue Police Box that can traverse space and time, with a hot British former 'teen star' that is obviously in love with your weirdness.
b. A big ancient ring that can take you anywhere where there is a corresponding ancient ring, but you keep bumping into Egyption dog people who try to kill you.
c. A large dinner shaped spaceship that does warp factors, but you get to shoot at klingons and make sexy time with green chicks (remember its all about the Journey!) Just dont get assimilated by Bjork!
d. Travelling with the Robinson family and a stupid robot that shouts "Danger" long after it stopped being funny. Oh and a pedophile.
e. In a ship that can make the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs - With a great big hairy Wooky and a gay robot.
e. Spending time on the only ship to have survived an attack by robots with KITT in their face, where it is a daily battle to stay alive.
f. On a moon that was flung out of orbit by a massive thermonuclear explosion initiated by the build up of magnetic radiation, which there is much debate as to it being caused by global warming.
g. Traveling across universes with a guy that looks like Mike Moore, where each new universe you 'slide' into is exactly like being on LSD.
h. On a ship with a dorky hologram an evolved cat, a computer with an IQ of 6000 and a very stupid robot, but every day is hilarious!
I. The space shuttle. (yawn)
You are just lucky the guy that invented fire didn't wrap it up in perpetual IP / copyright. He spend days inventing that, putting in all kinds of effort.
>>> They could install flare launchers on the planes, like military jets
They could, but flares are essentially an explosive and require allot more precautions. They also require significant operator management, including the requirement to maneuver the aircraft drastically to 'break lock' from the aircraft, hoping like heck the missile locks to a flare.
Also, Flares are far more likely to cause fires in dry areas especially if one is 'punched out' due to a false alarm. (they also get 'used up' and one counter-counter measure is to trick the aircrafts self protection system into firing off all its flares before firing your missile at it.
Fighters use flares primarily for the combat phases of flight, and are usually turned off for the landing and takeoff phase for safety reasons. This DIRCM system, while a total waste of money, negates most of the downfalls of flares, and requires almost no operator input. (They just need to turn it on and off at the right times)
>>>"A shoulder fired rocket can not shoot that high......So ... they should just install them at big airports to protect all jets coming in or out."
From here "Light to carry and relatively easy to operate, the FIM-92 Stinger is a passive surface-to-air missile, shoulder-fired by a single operator, although officially it requires two. The FIM-92B can attack aircraft at a range of up to 15,700 feet (4800 m) and at altitudes between 600 and 12,500 feet (180 and 3800 m)."
So yeah, You are in danger anytime you're under 12,500 feet. Which is quite a large radius around an airport for the take off and approach phases, which could be behind hills, or miles out to sea.
>>>> I honestly don't know how the hell you would detect such a missile tracking you
They detect the flame out the back of the missle. Chemicals given off by the rocket motor burn across the spectrum (visible, UV and Infra-red). The optical sensors on the aircraft pick up the burning, specifically in the UV range. Sunlight in this spectrum does not get through the upper atmosphere, so it is essentially "dark". Only a few other things emit at this range are things like arc-welders, but software can be used to eliminate these to improve the false alarm rate.
>>> "As far as I knew, even military jets have no early warning of IR missiles. " Oh yes they do.
>>> On the upside, we'll have some kickass war movies and video games to look forward to in another 20 years
Except with Tom Cruise putting on a Chinese accent instead of Sean Connery with a half arsed Russian one...
>>> "Dick move or not I'm sure I'm not the only "dick" that does this",
These people are very good statisticians. They know exactly how many people are 'dicks' like you, and I'm sure if they were pushed they could probably pick you out in a crowd.
>>>"No and I would not say anything and I would just laugh if I saw you checking if these airport doors were locked and several heavily armed men drag you off for a little question and rectal examination time."
I wouldn't try the doors either. But, if I saw one open then I'd tell someone, just the same as when I've baggage unattended for a suspiciously lengthy period.
But relating this to the article, and this is where the contention starts: The web doesn't easily discriminate between 'seeing the door ajar' vs 'checking to see if the door is unlocked'. And one takes risks when bringing either to the attention of the 'authorities'. Thus my analogy falls down as I'm not about to raise a broken website with anyone (its not like I'm going to wait on their 1-800 number for 45 minutes) - I'll just carry on with my day.
Or put it up for Auction on a Russian hacker site with a reserve for $5k, and use the money to flee the country....
Would you say anything if you were in an airport and noticed a door unlocked and ajar leading from the public area to the tarmac around the aircraft?
I agree with you 100%.
Back in the day when downloading music was free* I downloaded music like a storm. I'd listen to the music to see if I wanted to purchase that artists CD. Then, if the music was what i was after, I'd BUY the album. I found downloading entire albums a waste of time as I usually never got the full album perfectly all at a high bit rate without errors, (and if I did it was rare). Even If I did get the 'perfect album' I still wanted to own the physical media - the cover art, the CD. Owning the actual item is important to me, and at $10 for a CD it's pretty cheap too. I've always seen downloaded music as disposable.
Now, without downloading, I'm not that exposed to new music - i tend to just listen to what I have. (i listen to NPR on the radio too and from work, so don't get much exposure to the new mainstream stuff - and don't care - its shite.) The only CD I've bought in the last two years was Daikaiju, and that was from listening to the Escape Pod podcast who use it for their intro.
My point is: In my case, my ability to download music for free increased my spending on CD's.
----
* By free I mean I didn't know it was illegal or that anyone would come after me - just like the rest of the masses who used Napster and similar 'services'.
>>> "the internet is going to get pretty clogged"
I just have one question... where is the article about the telco's pouring money into infrastructure to increase our bandwidth to support these new services?
From their privacy page:
>>> "Seems common sense is abscent
I prefer: "Common sense is not common"
>>>> "Actually if you look at JAXA, almost everything they have done is a failure."
I'd be interested if you have any information on their failures. One of the companies I've been dealing with has been doing work for them, and although I gave this company a pretty crappy quality write-up, my upper management decided they'd stay as they must be doing 'something right' if they're doing work for JAXA....
Oh dear.
>>> "The NASA moon landings weren't faked."
You should take a gander at this: http://www.xkcd.com/c202.html
>>> Yes, just charge off-peak
I'm in Texas so you are talking about those 3 weeks they call winter, right?
but seriously, in summer the A/C is running 24/7 to keep the house livable, and my electric bill is already between $350 to $550 a month from spring to autumn and we already get charged more due to 'high demand' during these months (IMHO It's fuckin gouging). Even with off peak rates, i cant see it being all that cost effective with that 'summer demand gouge' added on. (if what you say is true about capacity, then WTF is up with this charge????)
I guess I would expect the cost charging the car to be similar to a tank of gas, so that'll add another $100 month at least, and i'm totally reluctant to 'put all my eggs in one basket' with energy costs.
>>> "Still, the extension cord is problematic
So is the power bill in summer....
I'm with TXU and i'm sure there is some surcharge on my bill in summer 'to discourage usage during peak season'. Could the grid even cope if people went plug-in rapidly?.
To be honest, most christian religious practices are actually this strange to me.
>>> "Yeah... it's called "bad vibes" and they destroy creativity."
Which probably explains all the crappy films we've been seeing in recent years - no creativity, just a re-hash of 'templates' with same/different actors / CGI.
Hey this might actually explain why Stalone is doing that new Rocky movie:
Stalone: "Where is my royalty check?"
MGM: "ah, about that... you have to do another movie if you want that money we owe you..."
Stalone: "ADRIAN!!"
>>>"They buy Sealand and become a sovereign nation to avoid prosecution. The RIAA, MPAA and BSA all band together and officially buy the U.S. government and military/industrial complex."
OR, they just simply hire Blackwater to blow up Sealand.
>>> "but the word stealing is more emotionally charged,"
THat is why i call it 'borrowing'.
Yeah, its like "if you want the money we owe you, you're going to have to work for it... again"
I think it says it all.
OMG the cops were also caught planting fake cars waiting to be stolen so they could catch car theives!!