The really cool thing is that this is barely the foam on top of your latte, no one has had time to do more than scrape the surface of the data dump yet. Astronomers say it will take years just to analyze what they have, and data is going to keep pouring in like a fire hose. This is an exciting time to be alive.
Of course they'll just ignore the first commercial drone delivery service on the planet, Zipline. They've been delivering blood and emergency medical supplies to about 1/3 of rural Rwanda since 2016, and Tanzania since 2017. They're going to expand into the US, if they can get through the permitting process. http://www.flyzipline.com/
Not necessary. Automated video recognition is too good for that to be needed in this day and age. Customers will just print out an Amazon logo on a standard sheet of paper and lay it down. Maye with a QR code for high-value deliveries, but probably not. These things are fairly loud, you'll know when your delivery arrives.
You won't make a dent in Roman_mir, he has an almost religious Libertardian ferver. Logic, history, economics and anthropology have all been tried, and he seems immune to them all. Capitalism is his god, and nothing should limit it.
I believe it was him who once told me that water pollution would be nonexistent if the waterways had owners, since the owner would sue. I asked, "So what if the owner of the Cuyahoga River just takes a fee to allow the chemical plants to dump their waste in it?" He replied that the owners downriver could sue. My response of, "Lake Erie? Lake Erie would have an owner?" didn't get a reply at all.
These guys at Zipline deliver emergency medical supplies to remote clinics in Rwanda. Not sunscreen to suburbanites. Anywhere within 120 kilometers of the base can receive a delivery of blood, vaccines, or other medical supplies within an hour of sending a text message, a trip that can take most of a day by road (if the road is even passable at that moment).
The trip is fully automated, just input the coordinates of the destination and the package is on its way at 100 kph. This is not a demonstration or beta project, they're currently in full operation in Rwanda and testing in other countries. The day they start to set up shop in Peru I'm retiring and going to work for them.
I'm reminded of the couple in the '90s who were charged with Child Pornography for putting a photo of their 2 year-old playing naked in the lawn sprinkler on their web page.
Now Amazon has an instant messaging service. It's nothing special yet, but considering their almost-worldwide AWS coverage and their customer-centric fanaticism I wouldn't be surprised to see it kill off some of the weaker competition over the next couple of years.
I assume that it's actually spelled like it's spoken, the way Spanish is. I was interested in learning Portuguese at one point, since it appears similar to Spanish. Then I went to Brasil and found that pronunciation is every bit as weird as in English, so never mind.
My in-laws lived in rural Peru, and had 13 children. Five of the first eight died before their third birthday. Then they moved to the city where they had access to clean water, health care, and a variety of foods, and the next five lived to adulthood. If they all lived to 100 years old their average life span is under 63.
That's only a problem if you see people having jobs as a bad thing. At one point the petroleum industry was insisting that Venezuela modernize its extraction processes to lower its labor costs. Chavez replied, "Those labor costs are jobs that support families. Now pay for our oil bitches." They eventually did modernize to some extent, but it was more because of worker safety and environmental concerns.
without subsidies When are you going to propose that the fossil fuel industry function without subsidies?
I've seen WD go through waves of quality control issues over the years. For a couple of years I wouldn't touch one except under duress, then they got good again. Then crap, then good, wash, rinse, repeat. Where they are in the cycle now I don't know.
Bezos has spoken out against the ban in internal Amazon email to all employees, publicly in the Seattle Times, and has sent their lobbyists directly to the White House to complain.
NASA did the same thing several times during the Shrub mAdministration. At one point they were told to turn off some aging space probe, Pioneer I think. Not "stop monitoring" but "turn it off so that no one else can monitor it" (not that anyone else has the equipment), and were openly annoyed that the ability to do so didn't exist. Repeatedly NASA was instructed to **destroy** data, which they did only after handing a copy over to other parties (generally the Planetary Society). In at least one case staff was instructed that it would be considered cause for dismissal to allow distribution of the data (the early Pioneer data tapes), which they defied.
I'll never understand the conservative mindset. "If I can't make use of it then no one else will be allowed to." I just don't get it.
It's the frelling military. If it wouldn't benefit whatever corporate board they're going to sit on after they retire the generals won't allow anything that might serve the public good to escape.
how come said printers were hooked up to the Internet directly?
Stupid/lazy IT guy and stupid/lazy bosses. Boss wants to print from his laptop when he's lazing in the coffee shop downstairs. Too stupid and/or lazy to use a VPN, so the stupid and/or lazy IT guy (probably a contractor) drops it outside the firewall. I've been told to do this with security equipment so that the customer could view their cameras from home, and refused. Customer was pissed off. My boss was pissed off. Customer's IT staff thanked me and wrote a letter of appreciation to my employer.
Oh, most certainly, some of them in branch offices of multinational corporations. The better ones have hard drives for storing print jobs, FTP and configurable web pages, etc. I know of one local company which was appalled to find that their printer was being used to host a kiddie porn FTP site.
This is actually a fairly common configuration when the IT guy doesn't know how to set up a VPN (don't they teach that in computer classes any more?). They just drop it on the outside of the firewall, maybe set up DDNS from the built in configuration, and VIOLA! Now their clueless boss thinks they're a wizard because they can print from anywhere.
More disturbing to me is the amount of security equipment hanging off the Internet, an appalling amount of it with default or stupid passwords. I'm a physical security professional, key cards, security cameras, alarm systems, and the like. On the LinkedIn forums the question is fairly often posed "How do I let my customer view video from off-site?" Nine out of ten of the resulting answers are, "Put it on the Internet outside the firewall and configure DDNS." A ridiculous percentage of the IoT DDOS attack last year consisted of security cameras and DVRs/NVRs.
In spite of half a century of work on robotics there is still nothing as flexible, adaptable and efficient as living creatures. Ma Nature has had four billion years to get it right, so a dragonfly can zoom around all day refueling in mid-flight while a robotic imitation needs a tether or a battery that runs down in a couple of minutes.
Here's a practical application; want to check for gypsy moth caterpillar damage in the upper canopy of the closest forest? You could climb up a couple dozen trees, or send the robot dragonfly. Which do you think is the more efficient, safer and less damaging choice?
Most of the people that I know (including myself) who use the Echo a lot have it connected to their music profile on Amazon, Spotify, IheartRadio, or Pandora. The Dot has an audio output that will work with most people's stereo system, or Bluetooth to newer audio equipment like Sonos sound systems. I've found checking bus schedules, weather forecasts and traffic to be much more convenient that getting out a laptop/tablet/phone. Alarms and timers are more convenient than messing with clocks, and you can have multiple levels of them from multiple devices. My niece has tied hers to Wikipedia, so her kids use it for homework. We haven't gotten to playing around controlling other devices yet, but our friends say they can't even find their WeMo controller as they haven't had to touch it since configuring them on the Echo.
Sure, some people will try it and say, "Meh". I expect to see a few of them on Craigs List in another month or two. By and large though, once you start using it you tend to use it a lot. Besides, Alexa is the only one in my house that actually does what I tell her to.
Why the hell is this comment modded to a -1? It's actually correct, while the parent piece of uninformed dreck is modded 3. This is why I don't stop into SlashDot as much as I used to.
My wife has a strong (and quite lovely) Peruvian accent, for some reason the Dot seems to have trouble with it. (She won't take the time to do the voice training for it.) She just wants to refer to it as "Hey, Bitch!"
I think she's a little jealous of the Dot and how much I talk to it. Of course since Alexa is the only one in the house that actually does what I tell it to I think that's understandable.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, and they renamed it for a reason.
The really cool thing is that this is barely the foam on top of your latte, no one has had time to do more than scrape the surface of the data dump yet. Astronomers say it will take years just to analyze what they have, and data is going to keep pouring in like a fire hose. This is an exciting time to be alive.
Of course they'll just ignore the first commercial drone delivery service on the planet, Zipline. They've been delivering blood and emergency medical supplies to about 1/3 of rural Rwanda since 2016, and Tanzania since 2017. They're going to expand into the US, if they can get through the permitting process.
http://www.flyzipline.com/
Roof of apartment and office buildings, not the roof of your trailer.
BTW, the drug smugglers on the southern border are using trebuchets for delivery already.
Not necessary. Automated video recognition is too good for that to be needed in this day and age. Customers will just print out an Amazon logo on a standard sheet of paper and lay it down. Maye with a QR code for high-value deliveries, but probably not. These things are fairly loud, you'll know when your delivery arrives.
You won't make a dent in Roman_mir, he has an almost religious Libertardian ferver. Logic, history, economics and anthropology have all been tried, and he seems immune to them all. Capitalism is his god, and nothing should limit it.
I believe it was him who once told me that water pollution would be nonexistent if the waterways had owners, since the owner would sue. I asked, "So what if the owner of the Cuyahoga River just takes a fee to allow the chemical plants to dump their waste in it?" He replied that the owners downriver could sue. My response of, "Lake Erie? Lake Erie would have an owner?" didn't get a reply at all.
These guys at Zipline deliver emergency medical supplies to remote clinics in Rwanda. Not sunscreen to suburbanites. Anywhere within 120 kilometers of the base can receive a delivery of blood, vaccines, or other medical supplies within an hour of sending a text message, a trip that can take most of a day by road (if the road is even passable at that moment).
The trip is fully automated, just input the coordinates of the destination and the package is on its way at 100 kph. This is not a demonstration or beta project, they're currently in full operation in Rwanda and testing in other countries. The day they start to set up shop in Peru I'm retiring and going to work for them.
I'm reminded of the couple in the '90s who were charged with Child Pornography for putting a photo of their 2 year-old playing naked in the lawn sprinkler on their web page.
Now Amazon has an instant messaging service. It's nothing special yet, but considering their almost-worldwide AWS coverage and their customer-centric fanaticism I wouldn't be surprised to see it kill off some of the weaker competition over the next couple of years.
I assume that it's actually spelled like it's spoken, the way Spanish is. I was interested in learning Portuguese at one point, since it appears similar to Spanish. Then I went to Brasil and found that pronunciation is every bit as weird as in English, so never mind.
My in-laws lived in rural Peru, and had 13 children. Five of the first eight died before their third birthday. Then they moved to the city where they had access to clean water, health care, and a variety of foods, and the next five lived to adulthood. If they all lived to 100 years old their average life span is under 63.
this is not a positive stat for solar
That's only a problem if you see people having jobs as a bad thing. At one point the petroleum industry was insisting that Venezuela modernize its extraction processes to lower its labor costs. Chavez replied, "Those labor costs are jobs that support families. Now pay for our oil bitches." They eventually did modernize to some extent, but it was more because of worker safety and environmental concerns.
without subsidies
When are you going to propose that the fossil fuel industry function without subsidies?
I've seen WD go through waves of quality control issues over the years. For a couple of years I wouldn't touch one except under duress, then they got good again. Then crap, then good, wash, rinse, repeat. Where they are in the cycle now I don't know.
Bezos has spoken out against the ban in internal Amazon email to all employees, publicly in the Seattle Times, and has sent their lobbyists directly to the White House to complain.
NASA did the same thing several times during the Shrub mAdministration. At one point they were told to turn off some aging space probe, Pioneer I think. Not "stop monitoring" but "turn it off so that no one else can monitor it" (not that anyone else has the equipment), and were openly annoyed that the ability to do so didn't exist. Repeatedly NASA was instructed to **destroy** data, which they did only after handing a copy over to other parties (generally the Planetary Society). In at least one case staff was instructed that it would be considered cause for dismissal to allow distribution of the data (the early Pioneer data tapes), which they defied.
I'll never understand the conservative mindset. "If I can't make use of it then no one else will be allowed to." I just don't get it.
It's the frelling military. If it wouldn't benefit whatever corporate board they're going to sit on after they retire the generals won't allow anything that might serve the public good to escape.
If it was PBR or Coors, sure.
how come said printers were hooked up to the Internet directly?
Stupid/lazy IT guy and stupid/lazy bosses. Boss wants to print from his laptop when he's lazing in the coffee shop downstairs. Too stupid and/or lazy to use a VPN, so the stupid and/or lazy IT guy (probably a contractor) drops it outside the firewall. I've been told to do this with security equipment so that the customer could view their cameras from home, and refused. Customer was pissed off. My boss was pissed off. Customer's IT staff thanked me and wrote a letter of appreciation to my employer.
Oh, most certainly, some of them in branch offices of multinational corporations. The better ones have hard drives for storing print jobs, FTP and configurable web pages, etc. I know of one local company which was appalled to find that their printer was being used to host a kiddie porn FTP site.
This is actually a fairly common configuration when the IT guy doesn't know how to set up a VPN (don't they teach that in computer classes any more?). They just drop it on the outside of the firewall, maybe set up DDNS from the built in configuration, and VIOLA! Now their clueless boss thinks they're a wizard because they can print from anywhere.
More disturbing to me is the amount of security equipment hanging off the Internet, an appalling amount of it with default or stupid passwords. I'm a physical security professional, key cards, security cameras, alarm systems, and the like. On the LinkedIn forums the question is fairly often posed "How do I let my customer view video from off-site?" Nine out of ten of the resulting answers are, "Put it on the Internet outside the firewall and configure DDNS." A ridiculous percentage of the IoT DDOS attack last year consisted of security cameras and DVRs/NVRs.
In spite of half a century of work on robotics there is still nothing as flexible, adaptable and efficient as living creatures. Ma Nature has had four billion years to get it right, so a dragonfly can zoom around all day refueling in mid-flight while a robotic imitation needs a tether or a battery that runs down in a couple of minutes.
Here's a practical application; want to check for gypsy moth caterpillar damage in the upper canopy of the closest forest? You could climb up a couple dozen trees, or send the robot dragonfly. Which do you think is the more efficient, safer and less damaging choice?
I saw a fossil of a half-meter long dragonfly when I was a little kid, and the first thing that came to my mind was I WANT!!!
"Alexa, send the giant dragonfly to bring me a beer."
Most of the people that I know (including myself) who use the Echo a lot have it connected to their music profile on Amazon, Spotify, IheartRadio, or Pandora. The Dot has an audio output that will work with most people's stereo system, or Bluetooth to newer audio equipment like Sonos sound systems. I've found checking bus schedules, weather forecasts and traffic to be much more convenient that getting out a laptop/tablet/phone. Alarms and timers are more convenient than messing with clocks, and you can have multiple levels of them from multiple devices. My niece has tied hers to Wikipedia, so her kids use it for homework. We haven't gotten to playing around controlling other devices yet, but our friends say they can't even find their WeMo controller as they haven't had to touch it since configuring them on the Echo.
Sure, some people will try it and say, "Meh". I expect to see a few of them on Craigs List in another month or two. By and large though, once you start using it you tend to use it a lot. Besides, Alexa is the only one in my house that actually does what I tell her to.
Why the hell is this comment modded to a -1? It's actually correct, while the parent piece of uninformed dreck is modded 3. This is why I don't stop into SlashDot as much as I used to.
My wife has a strong (and quite lovely) Peruvian accent, for some reason the Dot seems to have trouble with it. (She won't take the time to do the voice training for it.) She just wants to refer to it as "Hey, Bitch!"
I think she's a little jealous of the Dot and how much I talk to it. Of course since Alexa is the only one in the house that actually does what I tell it to I think that's understandable.
Fixing formatting:
'Talking points' != facts. Sometimes they're congruent, frequently not. The truth does have a liberal bias, though.