and we can count on the government to act responsibly with that, right?
You sure bet!
Please excuse me while I move my savings into gold bullion and go ask for that 10,000% raise...that is, unless I can convince payroll to start compensating me using precious metals instead.
If you put more currency into circulation, the value of it decreases. As the value decreases, things purchased with it become more expensive (inflation). Printing cash to get us out of the hole would do nothing more than crash the economy (the world's, since so many other countrys' economies are inseparably tied in with the US Dollar).
Economics has a way of biting every "get of debt quickly" scheme in the ass.
I think you may need to broaden your engineering relationships. The engineers I know span the whole range on the topics of religion and politics. I know many that go to church every Sunday as well as those who are quite happy without, telling you that it's opiate for the masses. Likewise, there are ones that have socially liberal conscious and others who take a much more conservative stance.
The only unifying point of all of them, in which I do agree with you is, that every one of them are constantly looking for rational, if not practical and realistic solutions to the problems that face humanity.
My only guess is that Bluetooth hardware was available "off the shelf" therefore simplfying the design time for the wireless link. It's questionable if this was wise, considering the proliferation of Bluetooth devices. I know I'd be a little upset if the legs that I depended on were covered under FCC part 15, particularly the part stating "this device must accept interference, even if it causes undesired operation."
FWIW, I don't think the BT is actually implanted, so regular surgeries for battery changes isn't an issue.
I think it's great that they've improved the functionality of these prostheses, but I find it rather dumb that the batteries that power them are not user replaceable. They've added some "whiz bang" at the cost of what would be now considered a standard functional issue of any consumer electronics device. I know someone with a prosthetic arm, which has replaceable Li-Ion packs, why would having removeable batteries be any different in this case? Then again, maybe I am incorrectly interpreting "no spare batteries available" as not user replaceable, instead of the design of these batteries are two-of-a-kind and no additional ones have been manufactured at this point.
They are coming out with an equivalent cockroach version in a couple of months. The next generation "fruit fly" model is expected to be available in late 2010.
Anyone know if the equipment in question has been tested by Underwriters Laboratories or the equivalent Canadian/European counterparts?
I'm wondering if the problem is strictly a design flaw or a manufacturing quality issue (though I would suspect a combination of both). If it's the primarily the former, then I would have to say that the testing firms that put their logo on the case just lost some credibility.
But then again, I can't say that I know anyone that specifically looks for the UL/CE/CSA logo on the box before they purchase something that they plug into their wall nowadays.
If I remember correctly, the idea to build a strategic helium reserve came about at around the same time that dirigibles were in vogue for transportation. The U.S. military, in particular the air force, was exploring the use of zeppelins and blimps for the movement of troops and supplies, as well as intelligence gathering. Such ideas lost out when larger, more powerful airplanes and helicopter designs proved to be more practical.
Germany wanted to buy helium from the United States prior to World War II, however a military embargo prevented this from happening, and thus the consequences were made evident with the Hindenberg
AFAIK it's a different type of corn they use for ethanol, and when you they use corn for ethanol, they use ALL of it.
Generally speaking, it's the same corn used for feeding livestock and human consumption. There isn't anything special about it...right now anyway. You are correct that once the corn is used, it is mostly starch depleted. The used "brewer's grain" can be dried and fed to livestock, but its done to supplement the vitamin/mineral intake for the livestock, not so much as being the primary "energy" food (carbohydrates), which comes from other sources, such as hay/silage/green feed.
There are methods in the works to use leftover fiber from corn or other plant based waste as fuel, but these are just methods of recycling waste products, not significant energy producers.
Celluloistic ethanol production is the process of taking various plant fibers, converting them into starch and sugars for the production of ethanol. Using switchgrass would utilize this process, and the whole corn stalk (not just the kernels) can be used in this process as well (with an estimated 5-10 times increase in ethanol output per plant). Switchgrass still has the advantage that it can be grown more easily in many places that corn cannot.
Funny, I went back to TFA to see if I missed something. Doing a search on "sign" doesn't return any results (other than being part of the word significant). Are you finding this in another related article? Or are implying that this will be part of cars being able to "talk with highway systems?"
There's a high degree of confidence in presuming that some form of roadway infrastructure improvements will be necessary, but the details didn't come through in the linked article, as far as I can tell. And considering that Burn's statements are really not much more than forward-looking visions without the details or design, it's anyone's guess as to what the capabilities and requirements will be at this point.
...that someone will have to come up with maps that are accurate? I don't mean ones that have pinpoint accuracy on the locations of roads, but thoroughfares with special conditions. I'd hate to riding in a car in autopilot that decided it could turn the wrong way down a one way street because the map data didn't show it.
An interesting idea, but if you were able to produce a vaccine that would nullify the effects of the majority of drugs that are abused, you're likely to wipe out the effectiveness of many commonly prescribed painkillers in the process. Take Vicodin for example. It's known to be abused and mildly addictive. Now although the vast majority of people aren't hooked on it, would it be worth it to render this drug ineffective to the masses just because of the few junkies that are downing this medication on a regular basis?
I see something like this not being used pre-emptively, but rather as another tool for rehabilitating those who suffer from a drug addiction.
If the tubes are nonferrous (which they'd likely be), they wouldn't cause a problem. However, if the pavement contained these tubes, it would preclude adding a loop detector after teh fact unless you can build the detector into an added top layer, which may reduce the tube system's effectiveness.
I think you missed my point. I'm not talking about the guy in the other lane, I'm talking about the one that just merged into the space that is your two second window. If I am following the car in front of me at exactly the same speed, and someone cuts in front of me that car cannot go any faster than the one that is in front of both of us. So I have two options: 1. Maintain my speed and forget about rebuilding my 2 second buffer, or 2. slightly reduce my speed to rebuild that buffer. If I choose option 2, go back to step one of yet another car merging into that 2 second buffer. No, you won't eventually come to a crawl by allowing a steady stream of cars to cut in front, but you will reduce your speed adequately to attempt to regain your buffer zone in a short amount of time, usually 2-6 MPH less than the speed at which the merging traffic is going (which is limited by the traffic in front of them). This will persist until people stop cutting in front of you, and your buffer is regained, then you will usually resume a speed of roughly what the traffic in front of you is doing.
That said, all your points are still valid, but they're not really applicable on the situation that I described. On point one, each lane has a variation on where its standing wave is located (this applies moreso to stop-and-go traffic), so while the guy next to you gets a few carlengths lead, he'll generally lose that lead once he hits his lane's standing wave point. Weaving through traffic is a negligible savings in time just like speeding...for the exact same reason. The relative difference in exceeding the speed limit by 5-10 mph versus going the speed limit over short distances is miniscule, and the differential of the average speed of a car weaving in traffic versus "going with the flow" is even less than that. And everyone jockeying for position by changing lanes introduces a whole myriad of conditions that it's a no-brainer that it slows traffic.
Seriously, how hard is it to follow the two-second rule on the highway?
It's quite difficult when the majority of other drivers see the space in front of you as an opportunity to "get ahead" in the flow of traffic.
It's not hard to follow the rule, instead, it's hard to maintain it without ending up going significantly slower than the traffic around you, and you'll still get cut-off occasionally simply out of spite for your perceived slow speed.
Drivers tend to be very self-centered in their driving actions and habits...even when that's entirely not the case when they're not behind the wheel. It stems from a variety of issues, from having to share the road with people that are distracted, aren't perceptive enough to notice what traffic is doing and adjust, or simple driver incompentence. With every driver eventually having an occasional encounter with another that is causing them some form of mild aggravation (usually unknowingly), can you blame them for taking an egocentric approach to their driving habits?
Of course, the problem then becomes self-propagating.
Making the assumption that the reference for comparison is standard 20lb bond paper, a sheet is approximately 0.0038 inches thick. So, we're talking 0.0038 mils once the 1/1000th thickness factor is added.
Anyone care to convert this into lengths of football fields or Empire State Building height units? <grin>
Looks like plans capped at anywhere from 200MB to 60GB per month, with a $0.15/MB (AUD, not USD) overage charge on some plans. On one plan (Liberty plan), they severely throttle your bandwidth once you hit the limit.
I believe the issue at hand is that users of this ISP pay per Mb download or are limited by their plan on how much can be downloaded per week/month. It's not a problem of accessing those downloadables, rather a matter of now having those downloadables go against your alloted amount of data use charges when they were once offered "toll free" from the ISP.
True, provided that you can prove that a device covered under part 15 was indeed causing actual harmful interference, and not just transmitting as designed. Until amateur radio receives primary allocation status of its section of 2.4GHz, I doubt that any ham would be very successful at kicking a part 15 device off their local airwaves.
Amateur radio has to comply with part 97, and the unlicensed devices have to comply with part 15, but the secondary allocation status for amateur radio (on 2.4GHz) puts the two almost on a level playing field as far as who has the "right" to be transmitting.
So if companies are to be contracted to build and operate a transport system to the ISS, would it be too far-fetched to think that these companies might look at other possible revenue streams from their development work? I could see a privately owned/operated spacecraft doing a better job of opening up the space tourism market, even if a ticket is still obscenely expensive.
Be careful of what you purchase
on
The Cult of Kindle
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Ergonomic issues that other reviewers have bought up are dismissed by the Cult of Kindle as flaws with the reviewer, not the device.
Attention reviewers buying ergonomic issues, I have a wonderful wholesale offer you can't refuse...
Slashdot Mirror
You sure bet!
Please excuse me while I move my savings into gold bullion and go ask for that 10,000% raise...that is, unless I can convince payroll to start compensating me using precious metals instead.
If you put more currency into circulation, the value of it decreases. As the value decreases, things purchased with it become more expensive (inflation). Printing cash to get us out of the hole would do nothing more than crash the economy (the world's, since so many other countrys' economies are inseparably tied in with the US Dollar).
Economics has a way of biting every "get of debt quickly" scheme in the ass.
Their business model could then become:
(Sorry, couldn't resist that tired joke.)
I think you may need to broaden your engineering relationships. The engineers I know span the whole range on the topics of religion and politics. I know many that go to church every Sunday as well as those who are quite happy without, telling you that it's opiate for the masses. Likewise, there are ones that have socially liberal conscious and others who take a much more conservative stance.
The only unifying point of all of them, in which I do agree with you is, that every one of them are constantly looking for rational, if not practical and realistic solutions to the problems that face humanity.
I guess the folks that came up with Clippy found a new job and some venture capital...
"It appears that you're lost, would you like me to:
My only guess is that Bluetooth hardware was available "off the shelf" therefore simplfying the design time for the wireless link. It's questionable if this was wise, considering the proliferation of Bluetooth devices. I know I'd be a little upset if the legs that I depended on were covered under FCC part 15, particularly the part stating "this device must accept interference, even if it causes undesired operation."
FWIW, I don't think the BT is actually implanted, so regular surgeries for battery changes isn't an issue.
I think it's great that they've improved the functionality of these prostheses, but I find it rather dumb that the batteries that power them are not user replaceable. They've added some "whiz bang" at the cost of what would be now considered a standard functional issue of any consumer electronics device. I know someone with a prosthetic arm, which has replaceable Li-Ion packs, why would having removeable batteries be any different in this case? Then again, maybe I am incorrectly interpreting "no spare batteries available" as not user replaceable, instead of the design of these batteries are two-of-a-kind and no additional ones have been manufactured at this point.
(Apologies for the puns in the title.)
They are coming out with an equivalent cockroach version in a couple of months. The next generation "fruit fly" model is expected to be available in late 2010.
Anyone know if the equipment in question has been tested by Underwriters Laboratories or the equivalent Canadian/European counterparts?
I'm wondering if the problem is strictly a design flaw or a manufacturing quality issue (though I would suspect a combination of both). If it's the primarily the former, then I would have to say that the testing firms that put their logo on the case just lost some credibility.
But then again, I can't say that I know anyone that specifically looks for the UL/CE/CSA logo on the box before they purchase something that they plug into their wall nowadays.
If I remember correctly, the idea to build a strategic helium reserve came about at around the same time that dirigibles were in vogue for transportation. The U.S. military, in particular the air force, was exploring the use of zeppelins and blimps for the movement of troops and supplies, as well as intelligence gathering. Such ideas lost out when larger, more powerful airplanes and helicopter designs proved to be more practical.
Germany wanted to buy helium from the United States prior to World War II, however a military embargo prevented this from happening, and thus the consequences were made evident with the Hindenberg
Generally speaking, it's the same corn used for feeding livestock and human consumption. There isn't anything special about it...right now anyway. You are correct that once the corn is used, it is mostly starch depleted. The used "brewer's grain" can be dried and fed to livestock, but its done to supplement the vitamin/mineral intake for the livestock, not so much as being the primary "energy" food (carbohydrates), which comes from other sources, such as hay/silage/green feed.
There are methods in the works to use leftover fiber from corn or other plant based waste as fuel, but these are just methods of recycling waste products, not significant energy producers.Celluloistic ethanol production is the process of taking various plant fibers, converting them into starch and sugars for the production of ethanol. Using switchgrass would utilize this process, and the whole corn stalk (not just the kernels) can be used in this process as well (with an estimated 5-10 times increase in ethanol output per plant). Switchgrass still has the advantage that it can be grown more easily in many places that corn cannot.
TMK, only if you reverse the electrical polarity to the junction. If you over drive the junction, you'll lose the effect and both sides will heat up.
Funny, I went back to TFA to see if I missed something. Doing a search on "sign" doesn't return any results (other than being part of the word significant). Are you finding this in another related article? Or are implying that this will be part of cars being able to "talk with highway systems?"
There's a high degree of confidence in presuming that some form of roadway infrastructure improvements will be necessary, but the details didn't come through in the linked article, as far as I can tell. And considering that Burn's statements are really not much more than forward-looking visions without the details or design, it's anyone's guess as to what the capabilities and requirements will be at this point.
...that someone will have to come up with maps that are accurate? I don't mean ones that have pinpoint accuracy on the locations of roads, but thoroughfares with special conditions. I'd hate to riding in a car in autopilot that decided it could turn the wrong way down a one way street because the map data didn't show it.
An interesting idea, but if you were able to produce a vaccine that would nullify the effects of the majority of drugs that are abused, you're likely to wipe out the effectiveness of many commonly prescribed painkillers in the process. Take Vicodin for example. It's known to be abused and mildly addictive. Now although the vast majority of people aren't hooked on it, would it be worth it to render this drug ineffective to the masses just because of the few junkies that are downing this medication on a regular basis?
I see something like this not being used pre-emptively, but rather as another tool for rehabilitating those who suffer from a drug addiction.
If the tubes are nonferrous (which they'd likely be), they wouldn't cause a problem. However, if the pavement contained these tubes, it would preclude adding a loop detector after teh fact unless you can build the detector into an added top layer, which may reduce the tube system's effectiveness.
I think you missed my point. I'm not talking about the guy in the other lane, I'm talking about the one that just merged into the space that is your two second window. If I am following the car in front of me at exactly the same speed, and someone cuts in front of me that car cannot go any faster than the one that is in front of both of us. So I have two options: 1. Maintain my speed and forget about rebuilding my 2 second buffer, or 2. slightly reduce my speed to rebuild that buffer. If I choose option 2, go back to step one of yet another car merging into that 2 second buffer. No, you won't eventually come to a crawl by allowing a steady stream of cars to cut in front, but you will reduce your speed adequately to attempt to regain your buffer zone in a short amount of time, usually 2-6 MPH less than the speed at which the merging traffic is going (which is limited by the traffic in front of them). This will persist until people stop cutting in front of you, and your buffer is regained, then you will usually resume a speed of roughly what the traffic in front of you is doing.
That said, all your points are still valid, but they're not really applicable on the situation that I described. On point one, each lane has a variation on where its standing wave is located (this applies moreso to stop-and-go traffic), so while the guy next to you gets a few carlengths lead, he'll generally lose that lead once he hits his lane's standing wave point. Weaving through traffic is a negligible savings in time just like speeding...for the exact same reason. The relative difference in exceeding the speed limit by 5-10 mph versus going the speed limit over short distances is miniscule, and the differential of the average speed of a car weaving in traffic versus "going with the flow" is even less than that. And everyone jockeying for position by changing lanes introduces a whole myriad of conditions that it's a no-brainer that it slows traffic.
It's quite difficult when the majority of other drivers see the space in front of you as an opportunity to "get ahead" in the flow of traffic.
It's not hard to follow the rule, instead, it's hard to maintain it without ending up going significantly slower than the traffic around you, and you'll still get cut-off occasionally simply out of spite for your perceived slow speed.
Drivers tend to be very self-centered in their driving actions and habits...even when that's entirely not the case when they're not behind the wheel. It stems from a variety of issues, from having to share the road with people that are distracted, aren't perceptive enough to notice what traffic is doing and adjust, or simple driver incompentence. With every driver eventually having an occasional encounter with another that is causing them some form of mild aggravation (usually unknowingly), can you blame them for taking an egocentric approach to their driving habits?
Of course, the problem then becomes self-propagating.
Making the assumption that the reference for comparison is standard 20lb bond paper, a sheet is approximately 0.0038 inches thick. So, we're talking 0.0038 mils once the 1/1000th thickness factor is added.
Anyone care to convert this into lengths of football fields or Empire State Building height units? <grin>
...are available here.
Looks like plans capped at anywhere from 200MB to 60GB per month, with a $0.15/MB (AUD, not USD) overage charge on some plans. On one plan (Liberty plan), they severely throttle your bandwidth once you hit the limit.
I believe the issue at hand is that users of this ISP pay per Mb download or are limited by their plan on how much can be downloaded per week/month. It's not a problem of accessing those downloadables, rather a matter of now having those downloadables go against your alloted amount of data use charges when they were once offered "toll free" from the ISP.
True, provided that you can prove that a device covered under part 15 was indeed causing actual harmful interference, and not just transmitting as designed. Until amateur radio receives primary allocation status of its section of 2.4GHz, I doubt that any ham would be very successful at kicking a part 15 device off their local airwaves.
Amateur radio has to comply with part 97, and the unlicensed devices have to comply with part 15, but the secondary allocation status for amateur radio (on 2.4GHz) puts the two almost on a level playing field as far as who has the "right" to be transmitting.
So if companies are to be contracted to build and operate a transport system to the ISS, would it be too far-fetched to think that these companies might look at other possible revenue streams from their development work? I could see a privately owned/operated spacecraft doing a better job of opening up the space tourism market, even if a ticket is still obscenely expensive.
Attention reviewers buying ergonomic issues, I have a wonderful wholesale offer you can't refuse...
Seen on the WDC page touting the uses:
Listen to the music on your My Book World Edition drive while you're on vacation.Now how in hell is one supposed to do that when virtually all music type files are locked out? Stream them as a .WAV file?
(FWIW, .WAV files are not on the list)