Can trains ever truly go obsolete? Physics students, help me out on this.. Isn't their some kind of rule that concentrating power generation into fewer large engines is more efficient than many smaller ones? For example the big coal plants produce electricity more efficiently than a million little single home generators would. Semis are more efficient than a fleet of pickup trucks and a single train engine pulling a mile long chain of freight cars is more efficient than a fleet of semis. Sure, we may have advances which make the semis more efficient but the trains will benefit from the same technology.
Also, don't even try to say any kind of aircraft will replace trains. Sure, it's great for getting items somewhere in a hurry but not only do you require energy to take the goods the distance but you need way more energy just to get it all into the air and keep it there.
I think trains are here to stay. What we need are more tracks.. AND lot's of trestles, bridges and tunnels so that we keep trains and cars from crossing paths. We don't need more railroad crossings.
Yes, that's right. Until the whole world is on one gauge. It is vital that North American trains can cross over into Australian track and European trains can cross over onto South American track. Just be sure to mind the clearances when on the lower line where the Great Atlantic Trestles cross.
Well... that was a major motivation of the US/USSR space race. The scientists had the military convinced that they needed assets in space, on the moon even and they would have an advantage at bombing each other. It worked great until they finally realized they were just flying further and farther away from the people that they wanted to blow up. Then the funding went away and we've been stuck in low earth orbit ever since.
I'm glad to hear it confirmed that SpaceX really does have ambitions beyond LEO. Still, I can't believe that they could afford to do this just because they want to. Somebody has to pay for it. Will the US Congress ever decide to fund space exploration to the necessary level and for long enough that they could pay SpaceX to do this? I am very skeptical. Is there someone else out there that would? Maybe a few other nations could but they would probably chose a company within their own countries. Not that I think they would... they didn't fund anybody's trip to the moon when that was the big race. Maybe they intend to get corporate sponsors? A WHOLE LOT of them.
Most Windows customers cannot, or at least think they cannot do that. Actually, most don't even realize they can re-install the version they are already on or why they should. They just run with what came from the factory as it gets fragmented, choked with malware and otherwise corrupted. Then, when it is too slow to be bearable they buy a whole new one. Most Windows users actually believe their computers become slower with age! Granted, they do become effectively slower as updated software is designed for faster machines, ie more bloated but they upgrade much sooner than they would need to because they don't understand that their OS is so crappy and corruptible or that it can be restored and even upgraded so easily.
We recently got our first blue-ray player. This is after a string of DVD players which barely lived to the end of their warranties. I think quality is definitely a forgotten art, everything is made so cheaply. The real annoyance is intolerance for scratches. Almost every movie we watch stops and has to be skipped through at least once. One out of every four movies it seems like we end up having to take back. This is usually due to tiny little scratches that I remember being able to play through no problem in older players when DVD was newer. It's not just Blueray or even this player. DVDs do it too and our more recent DVD players did it.
Maybe I'm just being too cheap myself and need to buy a more expensive player? I don't know. Rented VHS sucked too, the tape stretched with use and just wore out in general creating a lousy picture. At least you could almost always still watch it though. You didn't have to stop and restart it but if you did it at least you didn't have to find your spot again. Actually, our new Blueray player does remember the spot but that often times just drops it right back into the scratch that stopped it in the first place.
I can understand why an IT department would have a problem with a user bringing in their own server. Some rare places do allow employees to provide their own equipment but probably not a hospital with HIPA and all.
BUT!
Why did it ever get to the point where he felt the need to bring in his own server? IT infrastructure exists to help people get their jobs done. IT departments exist to support that. Corporate IT culture these days is absurd! Remember, unless the business is a server farm it isn't the IT dept that produces wealth for the company. It's the workers. If something simple like installing an LDAP server helps the workers be productive then the IT department should be doing so long before it gets to a point that a user has to take it upon himself to fill the need. This was a failure of the IT department before the user even bought the box. Buying one's own server is a pretty extreme step, a real need must have existed.
I've worked for a large corporation with a lock it all down corporate IT culture. Daily I had to deal with irate customers with simple problems that were totally the company's fault and should have been fixable by a few simple clicks but IT had crippled our tools. Try telling a customer you have to send a ticket up to a higher level of support so they can get their email when the last 10 people they talked to said the same. Now I work in a place where often I am the one calling for better security. I can understand both sides.
Meanwhile... to the author. I'd probably give him the login. You are probaby really lucky he is nice enough to let you have your server let alone not get you in trouble. I only hesitate because not asking for root seems really weird to me. What is the IT guy really wanting to do with it that he doesn't need root? I'd be watching that account to make sure it doesn't become his personal MP3, Divx or P0rn store.
If you really are feeling rebellious about this then you could always give IT their own personal jailroot.;-) Either way, you better hope your IT guy doesn't read Slashdot. Good luck on that!
I occassionaly (about twice a month or so) edit an image for a few personal non-professional websites.
About every other month or so I edit an image for some other personal project.
About once a month I edit an image at work. This is not really my job (thus no employer purchased graphics package), another guy does that but for really easy little one-offs it's quicker to do it myself.
At work I have to use Windows. I honestly do prefer Linux at home, it's what I like, not a religion or a point I am trying to make.
I have a home, a family and responsibilities. My many hobbies are paid for on a fixed 'allowance'.
Should I:
Buy Photoshop CS5.5 for $1,299.00
Buy Photoshop CS5 for $699
Subscribe to Photoshop CS5.5 for $65/month
Subscribe to Photoshop CS5 for $35/month
Steal Photoshop
Use Gimp as I have been
Use Gimp and tell all the Photoshop fanbois to STFU!
Use something else I have never considered
So the first moderator to reach it had a fringe opinion about it. Relax, that happens, it was fixed soon enough. Go outside and enjoy some fresh air and sunlight, it will be good for you, trust me!
Sure! All species equally have sent members of their own and others into space, built great telescopes to discover there are other worlds out there and to observe the CMBR and discover the origin of the universe. They have all cured many diseases and altered their environment to the point of allowing them to live pretty much anywhere on or in the Earth.
Of course Flash on Android sucks. Flash on PC sucks too. Flash just sucks!
First, if this guy had ads dancing around on his pages he definitely did it wrong. Flash on Android has an option where Flash content is replaced by a static box. Nothing actually runs unless you touch the box then it gets replaced with the Flash content. This is IMHO the only way to run Flash on an embedded device. Just letting all Flash content pop up at will is really asking for trouble on a low powered machine with a small screen.
Still, UNFORTUNATELY there is still content out there that is inaccessible without flash. Yes, if your favorite video site has it's own app that is much better. Run that instead. But... if it doesn't then having Flash on the device lets you at least give it a try. You can run it the way a underpowered device with a small touchscreen can. Which is often if not always better than not at all.
Personally I dream of a day when nobody uses Flash anymore. Everything is html v.X and Java/ECMA script vY, as a result all content is available for all platforms with a browser and runs as well as the browser allows it to. (Even so, dedicated apps for the most popular video sites would still be nice). Until that day having Flash does add value to a platform over not having it, even if it still sucks.
That only holds true if the Chinese government is claiming to be pro freedom themselves. Are they? If they don't make that claim, the US government does and the US government keeps working against freedom then yes the Chinese can say the US is being hypocritical. Actually... they can either way. It's just that if they claim to be for freedom then they are hypocrites too.
It is true, extinction is a natural thing and some species would go extinct without human interference. The thing is human influence is now so thorough, effecting every environment on Earth it is hard to imagine that any species would be in the same situation today, for better or worse if humans hadn't developed technology or perhaps never existed at all.
Sure, extinction is an important part of evolution but so is genetic diversity. The planet is losing that diversity very quickly due to human influence. If we could stop every extinction (of course we cannot) then it would be good if we did so at least until we can learn to live cleaner and not be the cause of so many extinctions. Then we could let nature take it's course again.
Of course this is all academic b/c there is no way we could just suddenly halt all extinctions. It sounds like what the researchers are proposing is a form of triage. Divert resources from the lost causes so we can have better success with the rest. That might not be such a bad idea.
1 core can be running my browser or other interactive program
another core can be used by a music player
while the third manages the phone itself, the connection to the cell tower, etc...
Of course 1 core can do all that at once buy maybe 3 will do it snappier?
Unless of course it is an Apple phone. Then you don't get to do all that at once...
Yes, that would be a laptop. Tablets don't have all the components in any unit, they are incomplete, missing their keyboards, mouse/mouselike device and most of their function.
Today you need it to work in a foreign country. Tomorrow you need it just to visit. How long until you need it just to get by within your own country. Ronald . Noble makes it sound so nice though. He found a perfect niche to get his pet card into existence so he can increase it's scope a bit at a time later.
Um... Often though not always cancer IS the result of one's poor choices. I don't like the word mistake though. Few people are mistaken about the risks of smoking, poor eating habits, lack of exercise etc and I don't think they accidentally lit the cigarette and dropped it in their mouths. They just chose an early, slow and painful death anyway. Actually, it's the same with heart disease, STDs and a number of other maladies. I think it's perfectly reasonable not to want to be responsible for someone else's choices.
That being said I don't think that is what a global id would be about.
Model T - slowly took the user to wherever they want to go, steered with a steering wheel
Kia - looks nicer but only goes places that are downhill, hard to use the steering wheel when you are outside pushing
Osborn - slowly executed the user's software, keyboards are easy to use
iPad - only executes Apple approved software, no keyboard, have to trade screen space for a crappy simulation of a keyboard
That looks like a CRT. Surely there is a working mechanical TV left somewhere in Brittain. One of those could be something like 10 years or so older! Maybe that is the oldest which can receive PAL?
I almost didn't bother to read the article because the summary is non-news. I'm as glad as anybody that at least one large company out there speaks against software patents but until Google owns as many congressmen and judges as the rest of the industry together it really doesn't matter.
The real story here is Google stepping up it's own patent portfolio. Is this Google about to swoop down and rescue Android? The article I want to read now is just what are these Nortel patents? What kind of stuff do they cover? Will this be sufficient to stop the attack? Does this mean that Google will have to be evil and sue the 'little guys' in order to keep their patents valid? What are Google's chances of winning the auction? They only have the starting bid now, are they determined enough to keep upping it or is this all just for show?
Slashdot Mirror
Can trains ever truly go obsolete? Physics students, help me out on this.. Isn't their some kind of rule that concentrating power generation into fewer large engines is more efficient than many smaller ones? For example the big coal plants produce electricity more efficiently than a million little single home generators would. Semis are more efficient than a fleet of pickup trucks and a single train engine pulling a mile long chain of freight cars is more efficient than a fleet of semis. Sure, we may have advances which make the semis more efficient but the trains will benefit from the same technology.
Also, don't even try to say any kind of aircraft will replace trains. Sure, it's great for getting items somewhere in a hurry but not only do you require energy to take the goods the distance but you need way more energy just to get it all into the air and keep it there.
I think trains are here to stay. What we need are more tracks.. AND lot's of trestles, bridges and tunnels so that we keep trains and cars from crossing paths. We don't need more railroad crossings.
In my day we carried our own packets. 10 miles! In the Snow! Uphill both ways!
Yes, that's right. Until the whole world is on one gauge. It is vital that North American trains can cross over into Australian track and European trains can cross over onto South American track. Just be sure to mind the clearances when on the lower line where the Great Atlantic Trestles cross.
Well... that was a major motivation of the US/USSR space race. The scientists had the military convinced that they needed assets in space, on the moon even and they would have an advantage at bombing each other. It worked great until they finally realized they were just flying further and farther away from the people that they wanted to blow up. Then the funding went away and we've been stuck in low earth orbit ever since.
Maybe the same is happening in China now?
I'm glad to hear it confirmed that SpaceX really does have ambitions beyond LEO. Still, I can't believe that they could afford to do this just because they want to. Somebody has to pay for it. Will the US Congress ever decide to fund space exploration to the necessary level and for long enough that they could pay SpaceX to do this? I am very skeptical. Is there someone else out there that would? Maybe a few other nations could but they would probably chose a company within their own countries. Not that I think they would... they didn't fund anybody's trip to the moon when that was the big race. Maybe they intend to get corporate sponsors? A WHOLE LOT of them.
Most Windows customers cannot, or at least think they cannot do that. Actually, most don't even realize they can re-install the version they are already on or why they should. They just run with what came from the factory as it gets fragmented, choked with malware and otherwise corrupted. Then, when it is too slow to be bearable they buy a whole new one. Most Windows users actually believe their computers become slower with age! Granted, they do become effectively slower as updated software is designed for faster machines, ie more bloated but they upgrade much sooner than they would need to because they don't understand that their OS is so crappy and corruptible or that it can be restored and even upgraded so easily.
Really? How old are you? What's your secret? How do you live so long? I want to do it too!
We recently got our first blue-ray player. This is after a string of DVD players which barely lived to the end of their warranties. I think quality is definitely a forgotten art, everything is made so cheaply. The real annoyance is intolerance for scratches. Almost every movie we watch stops and has to be skipped through at least once. One out of every four movies it seems like we end up having to take back. This is usually due to tiny little scratches that I remember being able to play through no problem in older players when DVD was newer. It's not just Blueray or even this player. DVDs do it too and our more recent DVD players did it.
Maybe I'm just being too cheap myself and need to buy a more expensive player? I don't know. Rented VHS sucked too, the tape stretched with use and just wore out in general creating a lousy picture. At least you could almost always still watch it though. You didn't have to stop and restart it but if you did it at least you didn't have to find your spot again. Actually, our new Blueray player does remember the spot but that often times just drops it right back into the scratch that stopped it in the first place.
I can understand why an IT department would have a problem with a user bringing in their own server. Some rare places do allow employees to provide their own equipment but probably not a hospital with HIPA and all.
;-) Either way, you better hope your IT guy doesn't read Slashdot. Good luck on that!
BUT!
Why did it ever get to the point where he felt the need to bring in his own server? IT infrastructure exists to help people get their jobs done. IT departments exist to support that. Corporate IT culture these days is absurd! Remember, unless the business is a server farm it isn't the IT dept that produces wealth for the company. It's the workers. If something simple like installing an LDAP server helps the workers be productive then the IT department should be doing so long before it gets to a point that a user has to take it upon himself to fill the need. This was a failure of the IT department before the user even bought the box. Buying one's own server is a pretty extreme step, a real need must have existed.
I've worked for a large corporation with a lock it all down corporate IT culture. Daily I had to deal with irate customers with simple problems that were totally the company's fault and should have been fixable by a few simple clicks but IT had crippled our tools. Try telling a customer you have to send a ticket up to a higher level of support so they can get their email when the last 10 people they talked to said the same. Now I work in a place where often I am the one calling for better security. I can understand both sides.
Meanwhile... to the author. I'd probably give him the login. You are probaby really lucky he is nice enough to let you have your server let alone not get you in trouble. I only hesitate because not asking for root seems really weird to me. What is the IT guy really wanting to do with it that he doesn't need root? I'd be watching that account to make sure it doesn't become his personal MP3, Divx or P0rn store.
If you really are feeling rebellious about this then you could always give IT their own personal jailroot.
I occassionaly (about twice a month or so) edit an image for a few personal non-professional websites.
:
About every other month or so I edit an image for some other personal project.
About once a month I edit an image at work. This is not really my job (thus no employer purchased graphics package), another guy does that but for really easy little one-offs it's quicker to do it myself.
At work I have to use Windows. I honestly do prefer Linux at home, it's what I like, not a religion or a point I am trying to make.
I have a home, a family and responsibilities. My many hobbies are paid for on a fixed 'allowance'.
Should I
Buy Photoshop CS5.5 for $1,299.00
Buy Photoshop CS5 for $699
Subscribe to Photoshop CS5.5 for $65/month
Subscribe to Photoshop CS5 for $35/month
Steal Photoshop
Use Gimp as I have been
Use Gimp and tell all the Photoshop fanbois to STFU!
Use something else I have never considered
???
So the first moderator to reach it had a fringe opinion about it. Relax, that happens, it was fixed soon enough. Go outside and enjoy some fresh air and sunlight, it will be good for you, trust me!
Sure! All species equally have sent members of their own and others into space, built great telescopes to discover there are other worlds out there and to observe the CMBR and discover the origin of the universe. They have all cured many diseases and altered their environment to the point of allowing them to live pretty much anywhere on or in the Earth.
Humans aren't special at all!
Of course Flash on Android sucks. Flash on PC sucks too. Flash just sucks!
First, if this guy had ads dancing around on his pages he definitely did it wrong. Flash on Android has an option where Flash content is replaced by a static box. Nothing actually runs unless you touch the box then it gets replaced with the Flash content. This is IMHO the only way to run Flash on an embedded device. Just letting all Flash content pop up at will is really asking for trouble on a low powered machine with a small screen.
Still, UNFORTUNATELY there is still content out there that is inaccessible without flash. Yes, if your favorite video site has it's own app that is much better. Run that instead. But... if it doesn't then having Flash on the device lets you at least give it a try. You can run it the way a underpowered device with a small touchscreen can. Which is often if not always better than not at all.
Personally I dream of a day when nobody uses Flash anymore. Everything is html v.X and Java/ECMA script vY, as a result all content is available for all platforms with a browser and runs as well as the browser allows it to. (Even so, dedicated apps for the most popular video sites would still be nice). Until that day having Flash does add value to a platform over not having it, even if it still sucks.
That only holds true if the Chinese government is claiming to be pro freedom themselves. Are they? If they don't make that claim, the US government does and the US government keeps working against freedom then yes the Chinese can say the US is being hypocritical. Actually... they can either way. It's just that if they claim to be for freedom then they are hypocrites too.
Yes
It is true, extinction is a natural thing and some species would go extinct without human interference. The thing is human influence is now so thorough, effecting every environment on Earth it is hard to imagine that any species would be in the same situation today, for better or worse if humans hadn't developed technology or perhaps never existed at all.
Sure, extinction is an important part of evolution but so is genetic diversity. The planet is losing that diversity very quickly due to human influence. If we could stop every extinction (of course we cannot) then it would be good if we did so at least until we can learn to live cleaner and not be the cause of so many extinctions. Then we could let nature take it's course again.
Of course this is all academic b/c there is no way we could just suddenly halt all extinctions. It sounds like what the researchers are proposing is a form of triage. Divert resources from the lost causes so we can have better success with the rest. That might not be such a bad idea.
1 core can be running my browser or other interactive program another core can be used by a music player while the third manages the phone itself, the connection to the cell tower, etc...
Of course 1 core can do all that at once buy maybe 3 will do it snappier?
Unless of course it is an Apple phone. Then you don't get to do all that at once...
An XO Tablet? Really? Now we are so sold on this tablet fad that we won't even teach the children to use a keyboard anymore?
Yes, that would be a laptop. Tablets don't have all the components in any unit, they are incomplete, missing their keyboards, mouse/mouselike device and most of their function.
Today you need it to work in a foreign country. Tomorrow you need it just to visit. How long until you need it just to get by within your own country. Ronald . Noble makes it sound so nice though. He found a perfect niche to get his pet card into existence so he can increase it's scope a bit at a time later.
Um... Often though not always cancer IS the result of one's poor choices. I don't like the word mistake though. Few people are mistaken about the risks of smoking, poor eating habits, lack of exercise etc and I don't think they accidentally lit the cigarette and dropped it in their mouths. They just chose an early, slow and painful death anyway. Actually, it's the same with heart disease, STDs and a number of other maladies. I think it's perfectly reasonable not to want to be responsible for someone else's choices.
That being said I don't think that is what a global id would be about.
Model T - slowly took the user to wherever they want to go, steered with a steering wheel Kia - looks nicer but only goes places that are downhill, hard to use the steering wheel when you are outside pushing Osborn - slowly executed the user's software, keyboards are easy to use iPad - only executes Apple approved software, no keyboard, have to trade screen space for a crappy simulation of a keyboard
I like the Kia to iPad comparison. I'm not so sure about the others though.
That looks like a CRT. Surely there is a working mechanical TV left somewhere in Brittain. One of those could be something like 10 years or so older! Maybe that is the oldest which can receive PAL?
No problem. The enemy of my enemy is my friend!
I almost didn't bother to read the article because the summary is non-news. I'm as glad as anybody that at least one large company out there speaks against software patents but until Google owns as many congressmen and judges as the rest of the industry together it really doesn't matter.
The real story here is Google stepping up it's own patent portfolio. Is this Google about to swoop down and rescue Android? The article I want to read now is just what are these Nortel patents? What kind of stuff do they cover? Will this be sufficient to stop the attack? Does this mean that Google will have to be evil and sue the 'little guys' in order to keep their patents valid? What are Google's chances of winning the auction? They only have the starting bid now, are they determined enough to keep upping it or is this all just for show?