1. Hook it up to your TV, wireless keyboard/mouse, should make a decent Hulu box. Maybe a USB tuner could work with MythTV?
2. Bend up a bracket, buy a monitor, bolt it to the back and you have a small footprint desktop.
Of course, software includes just playing pictures as a phenomenally overpowered picture frame, but it could serve up your CDs, etc, and be a backup file server.
It's the media, the industry, and potential patients that continue to blur the distinction between embryonic and adult stem cells.
Many people that suffer from various diseases have so far found no cure with adult stem cells, and desperately seek access to new embryonic stem cell lines in the hope that these will indeed cure them. I genuinely feel great empathy for them, and if that were all it was about, then the research would be unrestricted.
But that's not all that it's about.
The crux of the embyonic stem cell research restictions is, for me, the prospect that at least some women, given the choice of abortion or giving birth to an 'unexpected' child (I'm trying to use a positive metaphor here, 'unwanted' is more callous than I hope most women think of their situation) will be given as a further justification for an abortion that it 'might help someone else'.
I'm also hopeful that harvesting embryonic stem cells by other means than as the result of an abortion becomes practical and useful.
I'm a Right-Wing Conservative. I don't favor abortion, but I'm also aware that since I'm male, I'm not likely to be making that choice for myself. And I recognize that ultimately it is a moral choice, and if women want that choice they will find a way to exercise it. I just don't want my government promoting it. Other groups have the right to say what they want. My government shouldn't be encouraging research based on the product of abortion, and possibly affecting the choice with what, to me, is a questionable premise.
Hopefully, within the moral limits I subscribe to, there is a way to continue the research. And having said all that, while the current results are not promising for embyronic stem cell research and are actually pretty promising for adult stem cell research, I'm not opposed to successful cures if we don't have to make unacceptable moral choices to do so.
And I'm not sure my opinion would change if I were sick with something that might be cured with that research. Because I could just as easily die from something else that could not. Or something I or my doctor missed.
Actually, the term 'natural monopoly' was used by the OP. I accepted it at face value.
And you seem to be saying that it is in fact the likely outcome of the market.
But one point... Ok, two. Or three.
How many different providers would be needed to avoid a natural (or any other type) monopoly? 2? 3? 4? I can see where two cable providers, a telcom provider, and a wireless provider could offer a market that would not be considered a monopolized market. That would have been Mesa, Arizona in 2006 until Cox bought CableAmerica, IFRC. Now you have only Cox, Qwest, and the nameless wireless outfit that exists but doesn't bother to advertise or compete. Not to be confused with the defunct Tempe municipal WiFi network.
I think you could tolerate 3 cable providers and 3 telcom providers before the DigSafe problems become insurmountable. The fix is to move the demarc out to the curb, which in Arizona isn't too hard. In Maine the envirinment is harsher, and this would mean more investment in curbside boxes, so there it may be too much expense. But remember, the cable cos pulled fiber in the cities/towns, and upgraded their coax, and somehow made money on it. The telcos, of course, got the Government to finance their digital conversion, thank you very much. Not sure that worked out too well for us, but at least we didn't get trapped with ISDN forever...
In Portland, Maine, on the other hand, the terrain is hilly, heavily forested, and WiFi is pointless. Even DSS or other 2GHz solutions are difficult and not viable. Cable and phone for now are the delivery options, and the promised WiMAX and 700MHz solutions are still dreams.
Rural areas present different challenges, related to subscriber density. Wireless will not solve that either, as density is density no matter the delivery technology. Only by lowering the cost of delivery do you get broadband into low-density residential, and much of Maine and Arizona fall into that category.
Ultimately, it seems there isn't enough financial incentive to get competitors going. No, wait, since MOST communities grant exclusive rights to one of each, it's not a free market at all in most communities. Blame City Hall.
"Surprise someone finally realized that the last mile is a natural monopoly and should be a utility."
Um, when I moved in to the house I own now, it had two cable services and a telecom service entering the house. No monopoly that I can see, though I am lucky enough to live 1500 feet from a switch and my DSL service was very hot.
Then the 2nd cable company was bought out by Cox. A monopoly emerged. SO I'm down to two 'last miles' entering my house. I don't see Cox and Qwest getting together anytime soon.
In Maine, my house had one cable service and one telecom service. I could choose either Verizon DSL or GWI DSL, which spanked Time-Warner on speed and both TW and Verizon on cost. They still do I think.
My point is that generally speaking, ISP monopolies are created by the collusion of business and government. You will find that most communities grant the dominant cable provider an exclusive agreement. Most communities have one hardline telecom provider, an arrangement that is usually negotiated at the state level, and is grandfathered in from the time of Alex Bell.
This is not a natural monopoly. My house can tolerate several services entering it. It is an artificial monopoly, and could be broken by one of at least two ways:
- Communities permitting competition by ending exclusive agreements. - Communities offering the service as a 'utility'. - others?
The last mile monopoly myth keeps us from considering genuine competition. And for those who will point out that the monopoly is what gave the incumbents the practical profit margin to be able to invest in their physical plant, well, yes, but if there is truly an opportunity to create a competitor and make a profit, someone will fill that opportunity. All it needs is a free market.
This is a Keynesian era, let's have at it, ok?
ps- Consider both the taxes/fees your community levies on the monopolies, and the excess cost permitted by the monopoly agreements, as a tax. How much do the much-vaunted european and Asian ISPs pay in taxes and fees???
...I don't think it's cost-effective to make standard (>14ft) cables. You do need a quality crimper, stripper, and patience to get it right. The lack of good strain reliefs is what probably dooms hand-made patch cables.
Having said that... your boss is a semi-idiot.
You'll be mounting a jack at the demarcation point (where the incoming service ends and your cable begins), pulling cable to wherever it needs to be, and either punching into an existing patch panel or mounting another jack. Patch cables at each end are not worth making by hand, but pulling the horizontal cable? Pay attention, do a good job of the jacks, and you'll be fine.
Not many people have access to a decent time-domain reflectometer. I've been using them since the early 70s, first in the military and then in civiiian work. A good true TDR will show you terrible things you should not bother your pretty little head about, whether hand-made or machine-made patch cables, horizontal runs, patch panels installed and punched by trained professionals, or what the electrician did that looks like it was done in the dark. A good TDR will show you the effect of holding the cable in your hand, bending it gently, wiggling a jack, even smacking the rack with your tool bag. You don't want to know how poorly most cable plants look to good test equipment.
Buy a decent crimper (they sell them at Home Depot now, my God...) and decent plugs, you'll be fine. Just don't slice the conductor insulation when you strip the jacket, and keep the twists tight.
ps- A TDR is a wicked cool tool. It tells you so much that isn't important, and in too much detail. The good cable testers will give you the pass/fail and quality results you actually need. I suspect most people think that the Fluke testers are a TDR. These include some functions, but not many include the graphical display you need to interpret data. For reference, I learned to test cable in the 2-17GHz bands in the military, in hostile environments. 20mm cannon shells cause measurable damage to that thin stuff. OMS techs hammering on bulkheads also tend to damage cable. Being able to isolate the failure within inches - priceless.
Oh, and just so you know, I think exchangeable batteries are an immensely great idea. I just see other pitfalls - design constraints, industry cooperation, antitrust issues, that make them difficult and possibly impossible...
Standardized charging ports make sense, obviously.
Does no one remember the GM electric sled concept? It was in a Wired story some years ago. The chassis was where the wheel-mounted motors, fuel cell/batteries, and electonics were. Unlatch the body, drop it on another sled, and go. Fix the old sled and swap it out when another user comes in with a problem. Interesting concept, needs work to be relevant now since we've ignored fuel cells and probably wheel-mounted motors. A bit more involved than battery swaps, since that idea was intended to resolve the mechanical servicing issues, which we should assume will be much less of a problem with an all-electric vehicle.
"That is why these types of systems will be driven by the Service Station companies. working with the automakers. One can not do it without the other."
My point precisely. But my point is also that the automakers have few incentives to join together. there is one inceitive that would work - our Government mandating battery management, under the guise of recycling, toxic waste, etc. I expect the Nanny State to expand here in the U.S., and this would be a great opportunity to expand government influence. Watch how the White House manages GM to see if this is coming or not...
"So, the Service Station compnies have the infrastructure, and they have to(sic) motivation"
Just remember to get the automakers to buy in and actually *use* standardized batteries and mountings.
Good luck with that. I don't see many advantages to Toyota adapting their designs to whatever Ford chooses.
I don't see car makers actually choosing even very limited (2-3) types of battery/mounting combinations. There are more variables in vehicle design than that, and it's unlikely that you can accomodate the same configuration in a next-gen Prius that you do in an electric Escape that you do in an electric Civic.
Of course, we could all drive cars very similar in size, layout, and rear-end shape. Sure. that's the solution, make us all drive the same car. I'm sure whatever they have in mind will let me drag home a few bales of organic mulch, or a new big-screen TV, or that new sofa I've been just creaming over at the store.
Nope, not likely. Nice idea, and if it serves 50% of vehicles out there, it might be worth it. Just don't think it will be the one-size-fits-all fix. I wish him the best of luck, and hope he can make it work for half of us.
As an example, I became a fan of college hockey right when they started introducing face shields. One of the college rinks I went to had chicken wire above the boards and sawdust in the visitor's bench, where players stood the whole game - no benches. Extra credit if you know where this rink is, yes, they still play there.
Well, before face masks, a high-stick was cause for dropping gloves and pounding the offender. Getting chopped in the chops was no small thing, and so stick-checking was carefully done lest you try to life your opponent's stick and miss, lifting his jaw.
After masks? Hey, what's the big deal, it just glances off their grill, eh? All sorts of high-stick work became pretty common. And injuries, despite the mask, increased. You can chop a player in the neck, of course all the shots to the shoulder and chest, and occasionally you get the blade of your stick underneath the mask o darn...
The reality is that face masks now prevent injuries, the majority of which didn't occur before masks.
Football pads have the same obvious result, my friends. Nice try though...
Even where there is potentially plenty of water, drinkable water is NOT an unlimited resource. And it's not 'there' if you don't use it. Water evaporates and leaks. But the reality is that water, like bandwidth, is a finite resource. It costs to find water, transport and store it, make it drinkable, and then dispose of it. If you use more, it gets scarcer.
Bandwidth is also finite. It costs money to provision for it, actually maintain it, solve problems.
Some of you may remember when you were responsible for the Internet link at work - when the DDS2 circuit didn't cut it any more, the ISDN line was maxed out (thank God!) and then the T-1 wasn't enough, and 4 T-1s bonded couldn't handle it. With every increase in bandwidth came more costs, for a new or more DSU/CSU, new router, firewall. You used an external mail server to filter the spam, saving 90% of your POP/SMTP traffic. You blocked WebShots, and your CEO drove you c-r-a-z-y with the constantly-updating cnnmoney.com Now it's Flash that eats bandwidth, and you want to block YouTube, Facebook, and Hulu to keep from cranking up another link just to satisfy non-business browsing.
I understand the cable cos dilemma - Only a few users can hammer bandwidth, and affect everyone. The cost is spread, but not enough.
But that's the business. If you don't want to be held to account for selling an 'unlimited' service you need to limit, maybe you need to re-think your marketing and product. If I were managing the Internet service at a business, and the boss told me that fast response and reliability were mission-critical, I'd just tell him the cost. It's the reliable-fast-cheap thing again. Any two of the three, sir.
So Time-Warner, maybe you should reconsider the unlimited thing altogether. When the price gets high enough, someone will come in and compete. Until then, keep looking over your shoulder.
ps- Former co-workers of mine who are at Time-Warner working in the networking group tell me it's a constant tug of war, keeping the system responsive and costs low. They understand, but of course they have no real power. And then the consultants come in....
I don't want you to access your PC from home. If you can, so can they. I'll block the popular free services to start with, and expundge the software whenever I find it. I'm responsible for security to people that will fire me without remorse. If you need to work at home, you will get a portable machine to do so. Remember, taking data home is either theft or exposing proprietary corporate data to LIKELY compromise. Not using the VPN when your portable machine is off-campus is also forbidden, especially to visit your Facebook page.
I don't set virus scan to stupid configurations. It takes 5 minutes to boot in the morning because you consider being able to open a browser and see your Facebook page the end of booting, past network logins, antivirus updates, the corporate IM tool, and everything else. I'll get around to blocking Facebook soon. The virus scanner is just about all that is between your clicking on everything in Facebook and infecting the entire corporation causing downtime. That and the filters.
You should petition for an exception for running simulations overnight. If you need it, I'll get it approved.
I run updates in the background because we test updates against your image to avoid downtime. When they are complete, you'll get a popup telling you your machine will be rebooted at the end of the day unless you do it sooner. Updates are as important as your work - your machine's security is critical to your work, not an interruption. Updates are your friend.
Besides, if you knew better, you would be my manager. You don't. You don't want me crafting our next product marketing campaign, do you?
-ps- I've been a user also. When you realize you haven't had an interruption in 3 years, you put up with a little more security. And when your customers regale you with tales of being down for 3 days while they got 'the virus' out, you empathize. And smile.
Actually, everything that's 'slow' on my G1 (AndroidPhone to you ACs) is about the network. The phone itself can handle 3G data fine. It renders as fast as my old PIII, which si good enough for something I carry in my shirt pocket.
And I would give this a whirl for the fun of it...
We had to support a nationwide practice, lawyers travelling worldwide, and offer the best security. Oh, and permit exchanging documents with the office staff for editing, updating with images, and of course distributing these securely to other counsel, courts, and clients.
We started with Novell iFolder, set up a clustered solution, and did encrypted backups to a remote FTP server. Today I'd do this a little differently, but iFolder still works.
'just text documents' doesn't begin to cut it. Much case material is actually scanned as images. Even text documents will have embedded objects. Version control is critical for contracts, and saving each version individually is BAU. A 30-page contract might be a 3-6MB file, but the project can run over 500MB easily, and of course the redundant backup to another folder and reference materials can make the whole storage for this one contract >1GB. If they are doing the business they used to, this would make one partner's storage needs exceed 120GB in a year. For contract work alone. His trademark practice would double that.
God's killing of the firstborn in Egypt is radically different from anything I am aware of being taught in the Q'uran. Most importantly:
- God killed the firstborn in Egypt. Not the Hebrews. While you may disagree, in Christianity God is Creator and by this divine right has the moral and ethical basis to do as He wants with us. He could have killed Adam and Eve and taken a Mulligan, you know. But to the point, God did that in Egypt.
- What I have read of the Q'uran tells me that Allah instructs His followers to take revenge in His name, to punish in His name, to convert by the sword if necessary in His name. While Mosaic law in the Bible instructed the Israelites to stone their brethren for certain offenses (similar to Islamic law, apprently the way things were done back then), where Israel went to war against their adversaries if they did so in obedience to God, He aided them and conquered their enemies - if they did not go with His blessing, He witheld His assistance and Israel failed. Jesus teaches love, in that He seeks not dominion over nations, but the willing acceptance of His way by Christians. Let the nations do as they will, as individuals Christians are held to account for their actions and faith.
The difference I see between Islam and Christianity could not be more profound. Christ asks your freely given faith, and expects followers to preach His word - those hearing it will choose for themselves (avoiding much Calvinism here, bear with me). Islam expects followers to convert infidels by the sword, and in fact still considers them inadequate if they required force to be converted. An interesting dilemma...
Me? My God doesn't need me to convert unbelievers at the point of a weapon.
I had an iOpener, a V5 that I got a hard drive onto, split the keyboard connector for a mouse, added a low profile fan to keep it from smoking, and loaded XP (or was it 98, so long ago) to replace the custom QNX install. Explaing the pizza key got tired. A USB Ethernet dongle got me online. woot!
But you could buy one for $99, 'forget' to use a credit card, and never log into the service that was supposed to subsidize the device. They show up on eBay sometimes now, but it ain't a touchscreen.
I actually wish I still had one. But a CrunchPad sounds like what I would love to have. So long as it can handle Flash... grrr...
Wish someone would come out with similar hardware that was subsidized by their service. Be fun to hack up again...
So will I be able to register.blake? And can I sue to get control if some other doofus registers it before I do?
ICANN might see this as a way to satisfy the demand for intuitive, unique names, but it is also their model to sell registrations, and they will sell millions.
I expect the.blake domain to sell in minutes. Your last name will go quicker. You will deal with squatters/enterprising individuals/scammers to get into it, and they will mark it up, as is their goal and right...
Pus. A pox on all their houses. Just a money grab by ICANN.
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1. Hook it up to your TV, wireless keyboard/mouse, should make a decent Hulu box. Maybe a USB tuner could work with MythTV?
2. Bend up a bracket, buy a monitor, bolt it to the back and you have a small footprint desktop.
Of course, software includes just playing pictures as a phenomenally overpowered picture frame, but it could serve up your CDs, etc, and be a backup file server.
We now wait for the sequel to the prequel. They have us by the short 'n curlies... And are not letting go.
THIS is what it takes to get flash running on ARM?
Sheesh. Next thing, you'll be telling there's an IWM in the next iMac... harrr....
If it's unfertilized, it's NOT an embryo. It's an egg.
It's the media, the industry, and potential patients that continue to blur the distinction between embryonic and adult stem cells.
Many people that suffer from various diseases have so far found no cure with adult stem cells, and desperately seek access to new embryonic stem cell lines in the hope that these will indeed cure them. I genuinely feel great empathy for them, and if that were all it was about, then the research would be unrestricted.
But that's not all that it's about.
The crux of the embyonic stem cell research restictions is, for me, the prospect that at least some women, given the choice of abortion or giving birth to an 'unexpected' child (I'm trying to use a positive metaphor here, 'unwanted' is more callous than I hope most women think of their situation) will be given as a further justification for an abortion that it 'might help someone else'.
I'm also hopeful that harvesting embryonic stem cells by other means than as the result of an abortion becomes practical and useful.
I'm a Right-Wing Conservative. I don't favor abortion, but I'm also aware that since I'm male, I'm not likely to be making that choice for myself. And I recognize that ultimately it is a moral choice, and if women want that choice they will find a way to exercise it. I just don't want my government promoting it. Other groups have the right to say what they want. My government shouldn't be encouraging research based on the product of abortion, and possibly affecting the choice with what, to me, is a questionable premise.
Hopefully, within the moral limits I subscribe to, there is a way to continue the research. And having said all that, while the current results are not promising for embyronic stem cell research and are actually pretty promising for adult stem cell research, I'm not opposed to successful cures if we don't have to make unacceptable moral choices to do so.
And I'm not sure my opinion would change if I were sick with something that might be cured with that research. Because I could just as easily die from something else that could not. Or something I or my doctor missed.
Not the first white powder Bolivia is famous for...
Actually, the term 'natural monopoly' was used by the OP. I accepted it at face value.
And you seem to be saying that it is in fact the likely outcome of the market.
But one point... Ok, two. Or three.
How many different providers would be needed to avoid a natural (or any other type) monopoly? 2? 3? 4? I can see where two cable providers, a telcom provider, and a wireless provider could offer a market that would not be considered a monopolized market. That would have been Mesa, Arizona in 2006 until Cox bought CableAmerica, IFRC. Now you have only Cox, Qwest, and the nameless wireless outfit that exists but doesn't bother to advertise or compete. Not to be confused with the defunct Tempe municipal WiFi network.
I think you could tolerate 3 cable providers and 3 telcom providers before the DigSafe problems become insurmountable. The fix is to move the demarc out to the curb, which in Arizona isn't too hard. In Maine the envirinment is harsher, and this would mean more investment in curbside boxes, so there it may be too much expense. But remember, the cable cos pulled fiber in the cities/towns, and upgraded their coax, and somehow made money on it. The telcos, of course, got the Government to finance their digital conversion, thank you very much. Not sure that worked out too well for us, but at least we didn't get trapped with ISDN forever...
In Portland, Maine, on the other hand, the terrain is hilly, heavily forested, and WiFi is pointless. Even DSS or other 2GHz solutions are difficult and not viable. Cable and phone for now are the delivery options, and the promised WiMAX and 700MHz solutions are still dreams.
Rural areas present different challenges, related to subscriber density. Wireless will not solve that either, as density is density no matter the delivery technology. Only by lowering the cost of delivery do you get broadband into low-density residential, and much of Maine and Arizona fall into that category.
Ultimately, it seems there isn't enough financial incentive to get competitors going. No, wait, since MOST communities grant exclusive rights to one of each, it's not a free market at all in most communities. Blame City Hall.
"Surprise someone finally realized that the last mile is a natural monopoly and should be a utility."
Um, when I moved in to the house I own now, it had two cable services and a telecom service entering the house. No monopoly that I can see, though I am lucky enough to live 1500 feet from a switch and my DSL service was very hot.
Then the 2nd cable company was bought out by Cox. A monopoly emerged. SO I'm down to two 'last miles' entering my house. I don't see Cox and Qwest getting together anytime soon.
In Maine, my house had one cable service and one telecom service. I could choose either Verizon DSL or GWI DSL, which spanked Time-Warner on speed and both TW and Verizon on cost. They still do I think.
My point is that generally speaking, ISP monopolies are created by the collusion of business and government. You will find that most communities grant the dominant cable provider an exclusive agreement. Most communities have one hardline telecom provider, an arrangement that is usually negotiated at the state level, and is grandfathered in from the time of Alex Bell.
This is not a natural monopoly. My house can tolerate several services entering it. It is an artificial monopoly, and could be broken by one of at least two ways:
- Communities permitting competition by ending exclusive agreements.
- Communities offering the service as a 'utility'.
- others?
The last mile monopoly myth keeps us from considering genuine competition. And for those who will point out that the monopoly is what gave the incumbents the practical profit margin to be able to invest in their physical plant, well, yes, but if there is truly an opportunity to create a competitor and make a profit, someone will fill that opportunity. All it needs is a free market.
This is a Keynesian era, let's have at it, ok?
ps- Consider both the taxes/fees your community levies on the monopolies, and the excess cost permitted by the monopoly agreements, as a tax. How much do the much-vaunted european and Asian ISPs pay in taxes and fees???
...I don't think it's cost-effective to make standard (>14ft) cables. You do need a quality crimper, stripper, and patience to get it right. The lack of good strain reliefs is what probably dooms hand-made patch cables.
Having said that... your boss is a semi-idiot.
You'll be mounting a jack at the demarcation point (where the incoming service ends and your cable begins), pulling cable to wherever it needs to be, and either punching into an existing patch panel or mounting another jack. Patch cables at each end are not worth making by hand, but pulling the horizontal cable? Pay attention, do a good job of the jacks, and you'll be fine.
Not many people have access to a decent time-domain reflectometer. I've been using them since the early 70s, first in the military and then in civiiian work. A good true TDR will show you terrible things you should not bother your pretty little head about, whether hand-made or machine-made patch cables, horizontal runs, patch panels installed and punched by trained professionals, or what the electrician did that looks like it was done in the dark. A good TDR will show you the effect of holding the cable in your hand, bending it gently, wiggling a jack, even smacking the rack with your tool bag. You don't want to know how poorly most cable plants look to good test equipment.
Buy a decent crimper (they sell them at Home Depot now, my God...) and decent plugs, you'll be fine. Just don't slice the conductor insulation when you strip the jacket, and keep the twists tight.
ps- A TDR is a wicked cool tool. It tells you so much that isn't important, and in too much detail. The good cable testers will give you the pass/fail and quality results you actually need. I suspect most people think that the Fluke testers are a TDR. These include some functions, but not many include the graphical display you need to interpret data. For reference, I learned to test cable in the 2-17GHz bands in the military, in hostile environments. 20mm cannon shells cause measurable damage to that thin stuff. OMS techs hammering on bulkheads also tend to damage cable. Being able to isolate the failure within inches - priceless.
Made my wife sick to her stomach.
I loved it. I'll catch it on HBO like 6 times...
Peugeot isn't much of a force in the US market.
One manufacturer considering adopting one other manufacturer's standard isn't much of a groundswell.
And there is no groundswell yet for ecvhangeable batterires.
Oh, and some phones still DON'T use the mini-USB connector.
Your examples fail to make your case.
Oh, and just so you know, I think exchangeable batteries are an immensely great idea. I just see other pitfalls - design constraints, industry cooperation, antitrust issues, that make them difficult and possibly impossible...
Standardized charging ports make sense, obviously.
Does no one remember the GM electric sled concept? It was in a Wired story some years ago. The chassis was where the wheel-mounted motors, fuel cell/batteries, and electonics were. Unlatch the body, drop it on another sled, and go. Fix the old sled and swap it out when another user comes in with a problem. Interesting concept, needs work to be relevant now since we've ignored fuel cells and probably wheel-mounted motors. A bit more involved than battery swaps, since that idea was intended to resolve the mechanical servicing issues, which we should assume will be much less of a problem with an all-electric vehicle.
"That is why these types of systems will be driven by the Service Station companies. working with the automakers. One can not do it without the other."
My point precisely. But my point is also that the automakers have few incentives to join together. there is one inceitive that would work - our Government mandating battery management, under the guise of recycling, toxic waste, etc. I expect the Nanny State to expand here in the U.S., and this would be a great opportunity to expand government influence. Watch how the White House manages GM to see if this is coming or not...
"So, the Service Station compnies have the infrastructure, and they have to(sic) motivation"
But they don't have the control. See above.
Just remember to get the automakers to buy in and actually *use* standardized batteries and mountings.
Good luck with that. I don't see many advantages to Toyota adapting their designs to whatever Ford chooses.
I don't see car makers actually choosing even very limited (2-3) types of battery/mounting combinations. There are more variables in vehicle design than that, and it's unlikely that you can accomodate the same configuration in a next-gen Prius that you do in an electric Escape that you do in an electric Civic.
Of course, we could all drive cars very similar in size, layout, and rear-end shape. Sure. that's the solution, make us all drive the same car. I'm sure whatever they have in mind will let me drag home a few bales of organic mulch, or a new big-screen TV, or that new sofa I've been just creaming over at the store.
Nope, not likely. Nice idea, and if it serves 50% of vehicles out there, it might be worth it. Just don't think it will be the one-size-fits-all fix. I wish him the best of luck, and hope he can make it work for half of us.
As an example, I became a fan of college hockey right when they started introducing face shields. One of the college rinks I went to had chicken wire above the boards and sawdust in the visitor's bench, where players stood the whole game - no benches. Extra credit if you know where this rink is, yes, they still play there.
Well, before face masks, a high-stick was cause for dropping gloves and pounding the offender. Getting chopped in the chops was no small thing, and so stick-checking was carefully done lest you try to life your opponent's stick and miss, lifting his jaw.
After masks? Hey, what's the big deal, it just glances off their grill, eh? All sorts of high-stick work became pretty common. And injuries, despite the mask, increased. You can chop a player in the neck, of course all the shots to the shoulder and chest, and occasionally you get the blade of your stick underneath the mask o darn...
The reality is that face masks now prevent injuries, the majority of which didn't occur before masks.
Football pads have the same obvious result, my friends. Nice try though...
Oh wait, there's no money in that... And you wonder why I say
The water analogy is priceless...
Even where there is potentially plenty of water, drinkable water is NOT an unlimited resource. And it's not 'there' if you don't use it. Water evaporates and leaks. But the reality is that water, like bandwidth, is a finite resource. It costs to find water, transport and store it, make it drinkable, and then dispose of it. If you use more, it gets scarcer.
Bandwidth is also finite. It costs money to provision for it, actually maintain it, solve problems.
Some of you may remember when you were responsible for the Internet link at work - when the DDS2 circuit didn't cut it any more, the ISDN line was maxed out (thank God!) and then the T-1 wasn't enough, and 4 T-1s bonded couldn't handle it. With every increase in bandwidth came more costs, for a new or more DSU/CSU, new router, firewall. You used an external mail server to filter the spam, saving 90% of your POP/SMTP traffic. You blocked WebShots, and your CEO drove you c-r-a-z-y with the constantly-updating cnnmoney.com Now it's Flash that eats bandwidth, and you want to block YouTube, Facebook, and Hulu to keep from cranking up another link just to satisfy non-business browsing.
I understand the cable cos dilemma - Only a few users can hammer bandwidth, and affect everyone. The cost is spread, but not enough.
But that's the business. If you don't want to be held to account for selling an 'unlimited' service you need to limit, maybe you need to re-think your marketing and product. If I were managing the Internet service at a business, and the boss told me that fast response and reliability were mission-critical, I'd just tell him the cost. It's the reliable-fast-cheap thing again. Any two of the three, sir.
So Time-Warner, maybe you should reconsider the unlimited thing altogether. When the price gets high enough, someone will come in and compete. Until then, keep looking over your shoulder.
ps- Former co-workers of mine who are at Time-Warner working in the networking group tell me it's a constant tug of war, keeping the system responsive and costs low. They understand, but of course they have no real power. And then the consultants come in....
I don't want you to access your PC from home. If you can, so can they. I'll block the popular free services to start with, and expundge the software whenever I find it. I'm responsible for security to people that will fire me without remorse. If you need to work at home, you will get a portable machine to do so. Remember, taking data home is either theft or exposing proprietary corporate data to LIKELY compromise. Not using the VPN when your portable machine is off-campus is also forbidden, especially to visit your Facebook page.
I don't set virus scan to stupid configurations. It takes 5 minutes to boot in the morning because you consider being able to open a browser and see your Facebook page the end of booting, past network logins, antivirus updates, the corporate IM tool, and everything else. I'll get around to blocking Facebook soon. The virus scanner is just about all that is between your clicking on everything in Facebook and infecting the entire corporation causing downtime. That and the filters.
You should petition for an exception for running simulations overnight. If you need it, I'll get it approved.
I run updates in the background because we test updates against your image to avoid downtime. When they are complete, you'll get a popup telling you your machine will be rebooted at the end of the day unless you do it sooner. Updates are as important as your work - your machine's security is critical to your work, not an interruption. Updates are your friend.
Besides, if you knew better, you would be my manager. You don't. You don't want me crafting our next product marketing campaign, do you?
-ps- I've been a user also. When you realize you haven't had an interruption in 3 years, you put up with a little more security. And when your customers regale you with tales of being down for 3 days while they got 'the virus' out, you empathize. And smile.
So how does that work if you're using Office 2007?
Actually, everything that's 'slow' on my G1 (AndroidPhone to you ACs) is about the network. The phone itself can handle 3G data fine. It renders as fast as my old PIII, which si good enough for something I carry in my shirt pocket.
And I would give this a whirl for the fun of it...
We had to support a nationwide practice, lawyers travelling worldwide, and offer the best security. Oh, and permit exchanging documents with the office staff for editing, updating with images, and of course distributing these securely to other counsel, courts, and clients.
We started with Novell iFolder, set up a clustered solution, and did encrypted backups to a remote FTP server. Today I'd do this a little differently, but iFolder still works.
'just text documents' doesn't begin to cut it. Much case material is actually scanned as images. Even text documents will have embedded objects. Version control is critical for contracts, and saving each version individually is BAU. A 30-page contract might be a 3-6MB file, but the project can run over 500MB easily, and of course the redundant backup to another folder and reference materials can make the whole storage for this one contract >1GB. If they are doing the business they used to, this would make one partner's storage needs exceed 120GB in a year. For contract work alone. His trademark practice would double that.
Just saying, this is in fact nontrivial.
Please excuse me while I drive you crazy...
God's killing of the firstborn in Egypt is radically different from anything I am aware of being taught in the Q'uran. Most importantly:
- God killed the firstborn in Egypt. Not the Hebrews. While you may disagree, in Christianity God is Creator and by this divine right has the moral and ethical basis to do as He wants with us. He could have killed Adam and Eve and taken a Mulligan, you know. But to the point, God did that in Egypt.
- What I have read of the Q'uran tells me that Allah instructs His followers to take revenge in His name, to punish in His name, to convert by the sword if necessary in His name. While Mosaic law in the Bible instructed the Israelites to stone their brethren for certain offenses (similar to Islamic law, apprently the way things were done back then), where Israel went to war against their adversaries if they did so in obedience to God, He aided them and conquered their enemies - if they did not go with His blessing, He witheld His assistance and Israel failed. Jesus teaches love, in that He seeks not dominion over nations, but the willing acceptance of His way by Christians. Let the nations do as they will, as individuals Christians are held to account for their actions and faith.
The difference I see between Islam and Christianity could not be more profound. Christ asks your freely given faith, and expects followers to preach His word - those hearing it will choose for themselves (avoiding much Calvinism here, bear with me). Islam expects followers to convert infidels by the sword, and in fact still considers them inadequate if they required force to be converted. An interesting dilemma...
Me? My God doesn't need me to convert unbelievers at the point of a weapon.
I had an iOpener, a V5 that I got a hard drive onto, split the keyboard connector for a mouse, added a low profile fan to keep it from smoking, and loaded XP (or was it 98, so long ago) to replace the custom QNX install. Explaing the pizza key got tired. A USB Ethernet dongle got me online. woot!
But you could buy one for $99, 'forget' to use a credit card, and never log into the service that was supposed to subsidize the device. They show up on eBay sometimes now, but it ain't a touchscreen.
I actually wish I still had one. But a CrunchPad sounds like what I would love to have. So long as it can handle Flash... grrr...
Wish someone would come out with similar hardware that was subsidized by their service. Be fun to hack up again...
I don't see the threat from Anonynmous COWARD.
Then again, they should fear the 4-digit /.'rs lurking behind some ACs. A bit of code in the right place, and *poof*...
Of cou&**&^uuuuuuuNO CARRIER
So will I be able to register .blake? And can I sue to get control if some other doofus registers it before I do?
ICANN might see this as a way to satisfy the demand for intuitive, unique names, but it is also their model to sell registrations, and they will sell millions.
I expect the .blake domain to sell in minutes. Your last name will go quicker. You will deal with squatters/enterprising individuals/scammers to get into it, and they will mark it up, as is their goal and right...
Pus. A pox on all their houses. Just a money grab by ICANN.