Yeah, but he also said "...it wasn't the Greeks..." So in this case, someone didn't figure it out 2000 years ago; someone figured it out ~300 years ago.
Our sun, a nuclear fusion source which is already working reliably for more than 5 billion years, produces an extreme amount of energy. Within 6 hours, deserts on Earth receive more solar energy than we use in a whole year globally. Why do we keep ignore this most power full energy source?
I'd need a heck of a long extension cord to reach the desert from my house, for one thing...
And as I said yesterday, once we get the public over that fear, we still have to address the *real* problems of Nuclear: What to do with the waste, and how to stop cheap bastard energy corporations from cutting safety corners in the name of profits.
And that, my friend, is the crux of the problem. It doesn't matter how "safe" nuclear technology is, if it's still being run, managed and funded by cheap ******** who will gladly accept an order of magnitude increase in risk in exchange for a small increase in profit margins. Until the human element is fixed, nuclear is NOT safe.
And I think most people would be hesitant just letting anyone with a helicopter license to tow a water-skier behind them.
Why?
So long as I am not putting anyone else at risk, what does it matter? If the helicopter is at low altitude in the middle of a busy lake, that's one thing, but if no one else is nearby, why should anyone but the pilot, the helicopter owner (if not the pilot) and the person water skiing have any say in the matter?
The speed of 60mph isn't that spectacular. IIRC, (it's been a long time since I read the book I'm getting this from) there are R/C slope soarers (gliders that are designed to fly in ridge lift rather than thermals) that can hit 200-250 mph.
while all sensible people know that the only safe way to get anywhere is by driving there...
Balderdash. Those multi-ton, petro-chemical guzzling, suburban assault vehicles are clearly unsafe. How many people are killed each year by accidents in those things? How many people are die from the smog and pollution emitted by them? How many people are poisoned by the byproducts of oil refinement to fuel them?
Clearly, motorcycles, with one-third or less the fuel consumption, and one-tenth the mass, are the only safe way to travel.
...this means they have ceased to deserve my respect in return. my lack of respect is an effect of their lack of respect...my lack of respect is a response, for good reason. all you see is lack of respect, and not reason, nor context
For the most part, I agree with your assessment of the techie-ego problems that are unfortunately common here on/. but may I offer something to think about? There is a man named Danny Silk who teaches about honor and respect in a way that is somewhat unintuitive. While I am still a long, long ways from reaching the goal he advocates, I am trying to get there. In a nutshell, his attitude towards the attitudes of others is this: "I will not let your character defects control me." In other words, he doesn't treat people with respect if and only if they deserve it; he treats everyone with respect, whether they deserve it or not. So while I tend to think you are correct to be frustrated with the self-righteous techie who throws around terms like "unwashed masses" while scoffing and laughing at those who do not share his viewpoint on subjects like nuclear power, I have a bit of a philosophical disagreement with scorning those who scorn others. That just seems...I don't know...borderline hypocritical. <shrug>
If you really believed the tablet is an evolution of a laptop in the sense of an improvement it would follow that you would trade your laptop for a tablet. You may have a small contradiction in there.:)
Okay, maybe. I probably should have said it is an evolution of a laptop to fill a particular niche. My personal opinion is that they are largely complementary.
Not all laptops are 15". I own a 13" currently but there are some that can go down to 11" or 10". I can type with one hand while holding my laptop with the other, granted I avoid doing so. (Just tried it for the first time).
True. My wife has a 13" MacBook Pro, and there are a few 9" and 10" netbooks floating around the office here. I like the netbooks, but the keyboards pretty much suck, as do the displays. If I'm going to use a device with a crappy keyboard, I might as well go with the tablet, since it's more portable and, IMHO, the displays are nicer (at least for the tablets and netbooks I've seen). A 13" laptop probably won't have those problems, but now you're sacrificing portability again. Someone else mentioned not being able to use their laptop on an airplane because the screen hits the seat in front of them. I haven't tried a 13" laptop on an airplane, but that's definitely a problem on my 15"; I can't imagine that shaving just two inches diagonally would solve that. However, a tablet would work just fine. As for typing with one hand on a laptop, BTDT, and I'm with you. It's possible, but it sucks. Again, I'd rather use the tablet.
For Googling on a CLI-only server I recommend a text-based browser. I've been using lynx since the days I was a student (longer ago than I'd like to admit).
Yep, I use Lynx (and Links) quite a bit. Some pages render pretty horribly on them, though. Even though I'm a huge fan of the CLI interface for managing a server, given the choice of browsing a web site with Lynx/Links on the console or a GUI-based browser on a tablet, the GUI browser on the tablet wins almost every time.
Once more with feeling...Those people are doing these things on their phones.
And my wife has to hold her smartphone at arms' length to read the screen. Give it a few years, and it will happen to you, too. In her case, a tablet would be much better for pretty everything on that last that you said a smartphone can do because the bigger screen is more readable for her. I'm a few years younger than my wife, so I haven't fallen prey to the choice between holding things at arms' length or wearing reading glasses, but I'd still rather use a tablet than my Android for web surfing because a lot of web pages are kind of a pain in the butt to read when you have to keep scrolling left, right, up and down to read all the content. A tablet is, IMHO, a perfect size because it's small enough to be more portable than a laptop, but big enough to be readable.
Oh tablets will have a future. Once they become really cheep which is bound to happen eventually. Right now I feel sorry for people* who buy tablets thinking they are computers**. Specially iPads.
* Of course i don't mean people with more money than sense, they can be happy with their overpriced gadgets.
** Yes they are computers, but they can't replace a laptop/desktop.
Translation: "I can't think of a good use for a tablet. Therefore, there must not be a good use for tablets."
That's a really, really narrow-minded approach. While I agree that there certainly are uses for which a tablet is not suitable, there are many others -- which I'd wager comprise the majority of uses for most non-techie types -- for which tablets are arguably better suited than a laptop. I wouldn't want to try to code the next Linux kernel on a tablet, nor would I want to write my best-selling novel on one. However, I have a friend who is a real-estate agent who recently bought an iPad. She doesn't carry her laptop anymore because the iPad completely fills her need to browse MLS listings, schedule appointments, etc. Even better, it is smaller, lighter and has better battery life than her old laptop. I want a tablet (I'm actually thinking of buying a Nook Color and installing Honeycomb on it) to use to check e-mail/plot routes on Google Maps/surf the web when cruising around on my motorcycle, because my current laptop is too big to fit in the saddlebags on my bike.
A tablet may not fit your needs, but there are a great many people for whom a tablet is a perfect fit.
Imagine buying a car at the gas station, signing a contract to buy x amount of their gas a month, and then paying a few hundred on top of that for a car. Do you really think that car will be price competitive?
Let's see...I payed just north of $21K for my pick-up truck a few years ago. I burn about 17 gallons of gas per week at a cost of about $3.50/gallon. That's just shy of $60 per week for gas, or $3120 per year. So, let's say the local Shell station offers to sell me the same pickup for a few hundred dollars, if I contract to buy gas for five years at $5000 per year. In five years, I've overpaid $9400 for gas...but that's still $11,600 less than I paid for the truck when I bought it. So, as long as the Shell station charges me less than $11,600 for the truck on top of the contract to buy gas, I come out ahead.
He said he's running Honeycomb, which you apparently picked up on based upon your comments about the Android platform. So what do you mean, "Where's the apps for that Nook Color?" They are in the Android Market, just like they are on my Hero. Maybe I'm just missing your point, maybe I'm just too easy to please, or maybe you just like bashing Android, but I fail to see what you are going on about. The Android Market is pretty decent, and if there is something I need for a rooted Nook Color that doesn't yet exist, well, I've already downloaded the Android SDK, so I can always try to write it myself.
I have a netbook, too. We were evaluating them at work, and being one of the IT guys, I got one to try out. Since then, my (work) laptop has pretty much stayed put in the docking station, essentially becoming a glorified desktop. The netbook is my tool of choice when I need portability. The size, the portability, the 5-hour battery life (my Latitude E6400 gets maybe half that) all make the netbook an incredibly useful tool.
IMHO, the only drawback to my netbook is the keyboard. It's a Dell Mini-9, and Dell wisely discontinued the -9 in favor of the -10 about a year later because the keyboard on the -9 was way too funky. Many of the keys were in unusual places (quote, apostrophe, equals sign, etc.), and some of the keys were removed entirely, so you had to press the "fn" button and a different key to generate the character (the pipe symbol, the tilde, curly braces -- you know, the things us *Nix guys use ALL THE FREAKING TIME). The -10 had a typical laptop keyboard, and was much easier to use. I've considered getting a Mini-10 for my own personal use, but am kind of thinking maybe I'd rather just get a Nook Color and root it instead (it's $30-$100 cheaper and will do everything the Mini-10 will do, except maybe download photos off my digital camera).
Meh. IMHO, a tablet is a further evolution of a laptop. It's primary virtue is extreme portability.
I have a really nice laptop that is great for many tasks. However, at 15 inches, it's just a little too big to fit in the saddlebags on my motorcycle, which limits its portability during the summer. It's also a little heavy, so when I run back to the server room at work to check on a server, it's kind of a PITA to hold it with one arm while typing with the other. Consequently, I often use my Android phone to fill the need for a small, light, uber-portable device. However, the Android is a tad too small. Typing on it really sucks because my fingers are wider than the keys on the touch screen keyboard. A tablet, however, would be a perfect compromise between the two.
If I could only have one device, I wouldn't trade the laptop for a tablet -- as you said, there are many tasks for which a tablet just won't cut it. For example, I wouldn't want to try to write a novel on one, nor would I want to have to do all of my daily system administration tasks on one. However, for a lot of things I'd like to do (for example, updating my blog while crossing off one of the epic motorcycle rides on my bucket list or Googling a problem while working on CLI-only server in the server room, etc.) a tablet might be a better choice.
Well...not really. It's a V-Strom (shameless plug to my motorcycling blog), which is usually considered to be a rather homely bike. But it'll hold up better for the kind of riding I want to do than the sexier GSXR or Bandit, and it has no problem touring two up with a full load of gear. It's also about half as expensive as a comparable Beemer, Triumph Tiger or Super Tenere. As a wise man once said, "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts."
...and be good for pulling the ladies...
I guess...I've carried my wife, my daughter and my step-daughter on it (not all at once, of course). Unless you mean "pulling IN the ladies, in which case, as a (happily) married man, I don't really care.
...but can it pull a caravan? No!
Ooookay...My pick-up truck won't pull an entire caravan either, and the bike's way more fun.
Can you put fourteen crates of beer in the back? No!
Maybe not, but I wouldn't be surprised. You should see how people load up the Wee/V-Stroms sometimes. If there's a bike that could carry fourteen crates of beer, I'd wager it would be one of the Stroms.
Look, as a die-hard penguin freak, I love to bash Microsoft just as much as anyone else around here, but in all fairness, XP is an eight (nine?) year old operating system. Much as I hate to admit it, the fact that XP is still in widespread use today is actually kind of impressive.
...can install FF or Chrome or Opera or IE7+ or some other modern, standards-compliant browser*.
*Disclaimer: IE7 may or may not be "modern" and it may or may not be "standards-compliant." I don't really care, since I'm not a professional web master, and I don't have to support IE7.
4) Hosting https sites still require a unique IP for each site. If I, a a hosting provider, have 1000 sites on a server, I'd rather use one IP, than 1000 IPs.
Check out SNI. You have to have a browser that supports it, so IE6 users are hosed, but just about everything else most people are running will work (Chrome, Safari, FF, Opera).
If violation of civil liberties extends to wiretapping for suspected IP violations, I predict that many now docile citizens will rise up and wage revolution, both underground and in high court....The foundations of democracy can only be threatened so far before the people decide enough is enough.
Wanna bet? The average Joe isn't going to understand the ramifications of undermining the 4th Amendment (see what's going on in our airports right now, if you don't believe me). There will be no uprising because most Americans won't give a rip as long as they can still watch American Idol and eat at McDonalds while driving their 10 gallons/mile (no, that's not a typo) suburban assault^Wutility vehicle. You and I might get in a tizzy about this, but the rank-and-file won't care until/unless it affects them.
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Yeah, but he also said "...it wasn't the Greeks..." So in this case, someone didn't figure it out 2000 years ago; someone figured it out ~300 years ago.
Well, yeah...
Once you find it, why would you keep looking? Ergo, the place you found it is *always* going to be the last place you looked.
Our sun, a nuclear fusion source which is already working reliably for more than 5 billion years, produces an extreme amount of energy. Within 6 hours, deserts on Earth receive more solar energy than we use in a whole year globally. Why do we keep ignore this most power full energy source?
I'd need a heck of a long extension cord to reach the desert from my house, for one thing...
And as I said yesterday, once we get the public over that fear, we still have to address the *real* problems of Nuclear: What to do with the waste, and how to stop cheap bastard energy corporations from cutting safety corners in the name of profits.
And that, my friend, is the crux of the problem. It doesn't matter how "safe" nuclear technology is, if it's still being run, managed and funded by cheap ******** who will gladly accept an order of magnitude increase in risk in exchange for a small increase in profit margins. Until the human element is fixed, nuclear is NOT safe.
I was under the impression that four workers had died already at Fukushima, but I could be mistaken (no, I don't have a citation handy).
And I think most people would be hesitant just letting anyone with a helicopter license to tow a water-skier behind them.
Why?
So long as I am not putting anyone else at risk, what does it matter? If the helicopter is at low altitude in the middle of a busy lake, that's one thing, but if no one else is nearby, why should anyone but the pilot, the helicopter owner (if not the pilot) and the person water skiing have any say in the matter?
The speed of 60mph isn't that spectacular. IIRC, (it's been a long time since I read the book I'm getting this from) there are R/C slope soarers (gliders that are designed to fly in ridge lift rather than thermals) that can hit 200-250 mph.
LOL!
That's why I didn't mention this earlier, but Danny Silk is one of the pastors at a seriously cool church in California :)
while all sensible people know that the only safe way to get anywhere is by driving there...
Balderdash. Those multi-ton, petro-chemical guzzling, suburban assault vehicles are clearly unsafe. How many people are killed each year by accidents in those things? How many people are die from the smog and pollution emitted by them? How many people are poisoned by the byproducts of oil refinement to fuel them?
Clearly, motorcycles, with one-third or less the fuel consumption, and one-tenth the mass, are the only safe way to travel.
...this means they have ceased to deserve my respect in return. my lack of respect is an effect of their lack of respect...my lack of respect is a response, for good reason. all you see is lack of respect, and not reason, nor context
For the most part, I agree with your assessment of the techie-ego problems that are unfortunately common here on /. but may I offer something to think about? There is a man named Danny Silk who teaches about honor and respect in a way that is somewhat unintuitive. While I am still a long, long ways from reaching the goal he advocates, I am trying to get there. In a nutshell, his attitude towards the attitudes of others is this: "I will not let your character defects control me." In other words, he doesn't treat people with respect if and only if they deserve it; he treats everyone with respect, whether they deserve it or not. So while I tend to think you are correct to be frustrated with the self-righteous techie who throws around terms like "unwashed masses" while scoffing and laughing at those who do not share his viewpoint on subjects like nuclear power, I have a bit of a philosophical disagreement with scorning those who scorn others. That just seems...I don't know...borderline hypocritical. <shrug>
If you really believed the tablet is an evolution of a laptop in the sense of an improvement it would follow that you would trade your laptop for a tablet. You may have a small contradiction in there. :)
Okay, maybe. I probably should have said it is an evolution of a laptop to fill a particular niche. My personal opinion is that they are largely complementary.
Not all laptops are 15". I own a 13" currently but there are some that can go down to 11" or 10". I can type with one hand while holding my laptop with the other, granted I avoid doing so. (Just tried it for the first time).
True. My wife has a 13" MacBook Pro, and there are a few 9" and 10" netbooks floating around the office here. I like the netbooks, but the keyboards pretty much suck, as do the displays. If I'm going to use a device with a crappy keyboard, I might as well go with the tablet, since it's more portable and, IMHO, the displays are nicer (at least for the tablets and netbooks I've seen). A 13" laptop probably won't have those problems, but now you're sacrificing portability again. Someone else mentioned not being able to use their laptop on an airplane because the screen hits the seat in front of them. I haven't tried a 13" laptop on an airplane, but that's definitely a problem on my 15"; I can't imagine that shaving just two inches diagonally would solve that. However, a tablet would work just fine. As for typing with one hand on a laptop, BTDT, and I'm with you. It's possible, but it sucks. Again, I'd rather use the tablet.
For Googling on a CLI-only server I recommend a text-based browser. I've been using lynx since the days I was a student (longer ago than I'd like to admit).
Yep, I use Lynx (and Links) quite a bit. Some pages render pretty horribly on them, though. Even though I'm a huge fan of the CLI interface for managing a server, given the choice of browsing a web site with Lynx/Links on the console or a GUI-based browser on a tablet, the GUI browser on the tablet wins almost every time.
Once more with feeling...Those people are doing these things on their phones.
And my wife has to hold her smartphone at arms' length to read the screen. Give it a few years, and it will happen to you, too. In her case, a tablet would be much better for pretty everything on that last that you said a smartphone can do because the bigger screen is more readable for her. I'm a few years younger than my wife, so I haven't fallen prey to the choice between holding things at arms' length or wearing reading glasses, but I'd still rather use a tablet than my Android for web surfing because a lot of web pages are kind of a pain in the butt to read when you have to keep scrolling left, right, up and down to read all the content. A tablet is, IMHO, a perfect size because it's small enough to be more portable than a laptop, but big enough to be readable.
Oh tablets will have a future. Once they become really cheep which is bound to happen eventually. Right now I feel sorry for people* who buy tablets thinking they are computers**. Specially iPads.
* Of course i don't mean people with more money than sense, they can be happy with their overpriced gadgets. ** Yes they are computers, but they can't replace a laptop/desktop.
Translation: "I can't think of a good use for a tablet. Therefore, there must not be a good use for tablets."
That's a really, really narrow-minded approach. While I agree that there certainly are uses for which a tablet is not suitable, there are many others -- which I'd wager comprise the majority of uses for most non-techie types -- for which tablets are arguably better suited than a laptop. I wouldn't want to try to code the next Linux kernel on a tablet, nor would I want to write my best-selling novel on one. However, I have a friend who is a real-estate agent who recently bought an iPad. She doesn't carry her laptop anymore because the iPad completely fills her need to browse MLS listings, schedule appointments, etc. Even better, it is smaller, lighter and has better battery life than her old laptop. I want a tablet (I'm actually thinking of buying a Nook Color and installing Honeycomb on it) to use to check e-mail/plot routes on Google Maps/surf the web when cruising around on my motorcycle, because my current laptop is too big to fit in the saddlebags on my bike.
A tablet may not fit your needs, but there are a great many people for whom a tablet is a perfect fit.
Imagine buying a car at the gas station, signing a contract to buy x amount of their gas a month, and then paying a few hundred on top of that for a car. Do you really think that car will be price competitive?
Let's see...I payed just north of $21K for my pick-up truck a few years ago. I burn about 17 gallons of gas per week at a cost of about $3.50/gallon. That's just shy of $60 per week for gas, or $3120 per year. So, let's say the local Shell station offers to sell me the same pickup for a few hundred dollars, if I contract to buy gas for five years at $5000 per year. In five years, I've overpaid $9400 for gas...but that's still $11,600 less than I paid for the truck when I bought it. So, as long as the Shell station charges me less than $11,600 for the truck on top of the contract to buy gas, I come out ahead.
He said he's running Honeycomb, which you apparently picked up on based upon your comments about the Android platform. So what do you mean, "Where's the apps for that Nook Color?" They are in the Android Market, just like they are on my Hero. Maybe I'm just missing your point, maybe I'm just too easy to please, or maybe you just like bashing Android, but I fail to see what you are going on about. The Android Market is pretty decent, and if there is something I need for a rooted Nook Color that doesn't yet exist, well, I've already downloaded the Android SDK, so I can always try to write it myself.
I have a netbook, too. We were evaluating them at work, and being one of the IT guys, I got one to try out. Since then, my (work) laptop has pretty much stayed put in the docking station, essentially becoming a glorified desktop. The netbook is my tool of choice when I need portability. The size, the portability, the 5-hour battery life (my Latitude E6400 gets maybe half that) all make the netbook an incredibly useful tool.
IMHO, the only drawback to my netbook is the keyboard. It's a Dell Mini-9, and Dell wisely discontinued the -9 in favor of the -10 about a year later because the keyboard on the -9 was way too funky. Many of the keys were in unusual places (quote, apostrophe, equals sign, etc.), and some of the keys were removed entirely, so you had to press the "fn" button and a different key to generate the character (the pipe symbol, the tilde, curly braces -- you know, the things us *Nix guys use ALL THE FREAKING TIME). The -10 had a typical laptop keyboard, and was much easier to use. I've considered getting a Mini-10 for my own personal use, but am kind of thinking maybe I'd rather just get a Nook Color and root it instead (it's $30-$100 cheaper and will do everything the Mini-10 will do, except maybe download photos off my digital camera).
They do make alcohol pads to clean laptop and touchpad screens, you know...
Meh. IMHO, a tablet is a further evolution of a laptop. It's primary virtue is extreme portability.
I have a really nice laptop that is great for many tasks. However, at 15 inches, it's just a little too big to fit in the saddlebags on my motorcycle, which limits its portability during the summer. It's also a little heavy, so when I run back to the server room at work to check on a server, it's kind of a PITA to hold it with one arm while typing with the other. Consequently, I often use my Android phone to fill the need for a small, light, uber-portable device. However, the Android is a tad too small. Typing on it really sucks because my fingers are wider than the keys on the touch screen keyboard. A tablet, however, would be a perfect compromise between the two.
If I could only have one device, I wouldn't trade the laptop for a tablet -- as you said, there are many tasks for which a tablet just won't cut it. For example, I wouldn't want to try to write a novel on one, nor would I want to have to do all of my daily system administration tasks on one. However, for a lot of things I'd like to do (for example, updating my blog while crossing off one of the epic motorcycle rides on my bucket list or Googling a problem while working on CLI-only server in the server room, etc.) a tablet might be a better choice.
"My used car is better than your new motorbike!"
Yes, your bike may look impressive...
Well...not really. It's a V-Strom (shameless plug to my motorcycling blog), which is usually considered to be a rather homely bike. But it'll hold up better for the kind of riding I want to do than the sexier GSXR or Bandit, and it has no problem touring two up with a full load of gear. It's also about half as expensive as a comparable Beemer, Triumph Tiger or Super Tenere. As a wise man once said, "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts."
...and be good for pulling the ladies...
I guess...I've carried my wife, my daughter and my step-daughter on it (not all at once, of course). Unless you mean "pulling IN the ladies, in which case, as a (happily) married man, I don't really care.
...but can it pull a caravan? No!
Ooookay...My pick-up truck won't pull an entire caravan either, and the bike's way more fun.
Can you put fourteen crates of beer in the back? No!
Maybe not, but I wouldn't be surprised. You should see how people load up the Wee/V-Stroms sometimes. If there's a bike that could carry fourteen crates of beer, I'd wager it would be one of the Stroms.
Look, as a die-hard penguin freak, I love to bash Microsoft just as much as anyone else around here, but in all fairness, XP is an eight (nine?) year old operating system. Much as I hate to admit it, the fact that XP is still in widespread use today is actually kind of impressive.
Nevermind...I just checked the specs for SNI, and supposedly, Safari, Chrome and IE7+ only support it on Vista or higher. Sorry, my bad.
And XP users?
...can install FF or Chrome or Opera or IE7+ or some other modern, standards-compliant browser*.
*Disclaimer: IE7 may or may not be "modern" and it may or may not be "standards-compliant." I don't really care, since I'm not a professional web master, and I don't have to support IE7.
4) Hosting https sites still require a unique IP for each site. If I, a a hosting provider, have 1000 sites on a server, I'd rather use one IP, than 1000 IPs.
Check out SNI. You have to have a browser that supports it, so IE6 users are hosed, but just about everything else most people are running will work (Chrome, Safari, FF, Opera).
If violation of civil liberties extends to wiretapping for suspected IP violations, I predict that many now docile citizens will rise up and wage revolution, both underground and in high court....The foundations of democracy can only be threatened so far before the people decide enough is enough.
Wanna bet? The average Joe isn't going to understand the ramifications of undermining the 4th Amendment (see what's going on in our airports right now, if you don't believe me). There will be no uprising because most Americans won't give a rip as long as they can still watch American Idol and eat at McDonalds while driving their 10 gallons/mile (no, that's not a typo) suburban assault^Wutility vehicle. You and I might get in a tizzy about this, but the rank-and-file won't care until/unless it affects them.