Posts by Ian Michael Gumby 4454 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Apr 2006
Uhm...
That tag is so the driver knows the amount of clearance he has in terms of over passes.
3 meters = 9 feet, 10 inches and roughly 1/8"
So if an overpass says 11 feet you know you're ok. Less than that... oops. And trust me you don't want to break the boom and the equipment. ;-)
Just to add: "“Imagine if the government were to put an Echelon-style content filter on routers and ISPs, where it examines billions of communications and 'flags' only a small fraction (based upon, say, indicia of terrorist activity). Even if the filters are perfect and point the finger only completely guilty people, this activity still invades the privacy rights of the billions of innocent individuals whose communications pass the filter,” he wrote. “Simply put, if a computer programmed by people learns the contents of a communication, and takes action based on what it learns, it invades privacy.”"
So while many say its OK for Google, a for profit company who has few legal restrictions placed upon it, can and will read the mail. While I may not use Google, because they provide mail hosting domains for companies, they still read my mail when I send it to someone using Gmail and a 'vanity domain'. Unfortunately I don't have the ability to check that out ahead of time....
In short, I didn't agree to their snooping...
I was thinking the same thing about the time lords. The master is a special case, but the other time lords aren't enemies except that the Doctor stole the Tardis and I dont think they approve of his interference with the humans. (I'm not sure since I'm thinking back to the '70s era before the time lords were killed off.)
I wonder which aliens would be the most dangerous? I'm thinking the angels since they could send you back in to time and I'm assuming that its not just time, but also space... (Hint: The earth is moving, the solar system is moving and the galaxy is moving... ;-)
I really don't think it would be good to use when cloaking a tank.
It only cloaks it to radar.
Thermal imaging and regular sight will still show the tank.
Now if you could integrate this in to an aircraft's skin and it would stand up to supersonic flight? ....
Or on the other end of the spectrum.... a slow moving airship.... at a high enough altitude w camouflage paint would make a good spy platform, especially at night.
That actually works for me.
It would mean that other search engines could actually gain a foothold and survive.
It would also mean that Google would have to repatriate their offshore monies back to the US and we could use the taxes to help offset the ACA...
Just saying...
Look,
Its very easy to argue that we (the netziens) are all interested parties.
Do you really want to go through all of the legal stuff that says that its ok for this sort of leak when it is in fact in the public's best interest?
The clause where Google can redirect back to the US domain and bypass French laws is actually pretty damning.
And here's the more interesting thing... what's in a name? By this I mean if they redirect to Google.com and the server that they redirect to is actually still sitting in France... is that still ok? Otherwise if they actually redirected to a Google.com machine back in the US of A, there would be this really nasty delay of 300+ ms just on the signal traveling at the speed of light halfway around the world and back again.
Yes,
I remember it too. I know exactly where I was when the shit hit the fan. ;-)
I want to say that thanks to Morris, we have CERT, or was it that Morris put CERT on the map.
(Spafford was at Purdue if memory serves...)
(Its been a very long time and I've destroyed too many brain cells.)
Because I was a student system admin for one of the departments at my University... I got a boat load of emails and stuff on the worm.
The biggest thing that saved Morris was that he didn't think that it would replicate as quickly as it did and he was very repentant at the time. (Or that it would spread as quickly as it did...) The bottom line I don't think Morris thought about what could happen when he wrote it and launched it.
I used to ask people who insisted on .rhosts or /etc/hosts.equiv entries where they were when Morris released his worm. If they give me a blank stare, I'd give them the 15 min lecture. Or if they remembered... they would just quietly go away.
I don't think you remembered it wrong.
The thing about Morris was that he took advantage of a couple of major flaws and the worm over replicated quickly. Also he took out what was then the 'net or internet that grew out of arpanet.
The .rhosts, /etc/hosts.equiv was one insecurity. There were a couple of other things... but lets not go there.
(Geez, I hadn't thought about it for years... kinda surprised I remembered as much as I did. ;-)
Not quite.
First under US patent law, you can't patent a mathematical formula So the algo itself would most likely not stand.
With respect to laches, the defendant would have to show that the patent holder knew of the infringement. Note that is know and not suspected of the infringement.
And yes, to your point, the moment that you know of the infringement and can show that there was infringement, you are obligated to start the legal process. Note that it doesn't mean that you have to sue right away.
You can start with letters between lawyers and even issue a cease and desist request/order. If the infringement continues unabated, and it takes a couple of years to sue... you couldn't use laches as a defense.
Why the hell is it possible to buy IP and then sue people for products which the previous IP owner did not object to. Surely the lack of legal action is an implied permission?
If the patent holder waits too long, there is a defence of "laches" available. Quite how this plays out when you get a change in holder, I don't know. I guess we'll find out.
While, IANAL, the best answer is it depends and laches may not apply...
First the issue raised by the OP ...
Just because the prior owner doesn't sue, doesn't mean that you can't or won't.
Nortel would have to spend $$$ hiring lawyers taking the offending company to court.
They didn't have the money or felt that it was worth the risk.
Second, they would also have to have proof of the infringement.
You can't sue someone just to see if they did or did not infringe on your patent.
(That's called a fishing expedition. Note that some things under tort law are different.)
Which then leads to the laches issue. In order to apply laches as an affirmative defense, you have to show that the injured party knew, or that a reasonable person should have known that the infringement occurred and that they waited too long to object.
In order to use this as a defense, Google would have to show that the party who bought the rights to the IP knew of the infringement.
This is why they are making a point of why Google bid on the patents and continued to bid up to 4+ Billion USD.
The more you know...
When you consider that your IP is a tangible asset, you set yourself up for this type of thing.
What you are saying is that you understand that if you create some IP, you have the right to sue someone for stealing your idea. Yet you don't understand that if you sold your company and your IP that the guy you sold it to doesn't have the right to protect the business he just invested his money in?
Sorry, but really?
Getting serious for a second, just a second...
The issue isn't with the law, but with the patent in the first place.
What are they suing over... how to associate a term with an advertisement?
"According to court filings, Rockstar is asserting seven patents against Google, which cover technology that matches search terms to relevant advertising, the company's core business. "
Really?
Its these software patents that are incredibly bogus in the first place.
Software patents are a joke. You want to fix this... reform patent law and remove software or business process patents. There may be multiple ways to skin a cat, but they are finite and some are more optimum than others...
Just saying...
"There's a still lower chance - just 5 per cent in the next half-century - of a proper, really bright visual supernova of the sort that appeared in 1604. "
So that would have been the second coming.
This would mean that this would signify the third coming...
One has to ask ... does this mean that the third time is the charm, or three strikes and you're out?
Here's the thing...
The device captures only over the air signals and then uses your wifi connection to store your recording on the cloud. This is analogous to video taping (DVR) of over the air signals to customer who don't have satellite or cable.
The stream, including commercials are being captured. Where things could get interesting is if they seem to have two people recording the same show and they only save one copy. I don't know how that would play out....
"Why don't they have a $7 subscription service. Or buy Aero and keep it at $8."
Because the subscription service is for the DVR service which, from the article, is the key to the service.
So if you ditch the service, you just have an over the air antenna for your phone.
(I don't know that you can watch live tv streams. )
Unlike sneakers, jeans, or other school supplies, you don't need to keep refreshing your computer.
Also some schools supply them, or the student waits to purchase it when they get to school to capture student discount and discount on software.
So you could see a freshman hold on to his old computer until after Black Friday.
The site is literally thrown together and crap.
1) Use of external javascripts. For a site that is asking you for PII, this is really a no no... Why do you want to use Google's analyics when you should be doing it yourself. (but that takes time and skills to duplicate a script that shares information with Google.)
2) Scalability. The website and back end didn't scale. They could have gone to AWS built the site and scale out. As some would point out about the security risks... real or imagined... You already have them by the java scripts being used where the site is already sharing information with Google. Note that AWS does have a bunch of security certs...
3) Design. While the WH wanted a common interface (There are Federal and State sites depending on who is running the exchanges...) and common wording/definitions... The site is a pain in the ass. Sort of like the switch to the new iOS from the old iOS. Change for the sake of change sucks... but I digress.
Clearly the CIO of the WH is a maroon...
The 27" isn't too big.
The sad thing is that you have to special order the iMac if you want to put it on a VESA monitor arm.
(And yes, you will want to do that to free up some desk top real Estate. )
BTW, is it just me, but in the article there's a graph of benchmarks that have nothing to do with the article?
The show room types are pretty much peons who lack the finer points of technology (chemistry and engineering) (So too did the firemen who tried to use water on a Tesla first.)
The car looks nice, drives well. (I was in one as a passenger for a test ride.
As a 6'2" adult male, I can tell you that you don't want to sit in the back of one of these because you have no head room.
I'm waiting for the SUV model.
There are always a way to ignite a fire....
I was sitting in my SOHO in downtown Chicago. I heard a car accident and ran to my window. It was a large truck. I called 911. I told the operator that the truck had just caught fire and that they should hurry and get a fire truck over there. (The closet fire station is less than 1/3 of a mile away.)
Was on with the operator for 10-15 mins and then the diesel tank cooked and blew. (Big boom, no real damage to anything surrounding it.)
The operator asked me what that was... I told her the diesel tank just cooked. Within 30 seconds, you could hear the fire trucks arriving on the scene.
Bottom line. Depending on the wreck... you can cook a car, any car.
You wrote:
"If I may correct you on the initial assertion, "AT&T was split up in to baby bells to stop their dominance in the telecommunication industry.". This was at one time true, but is no longer."
Sorry, but I think you misunderstood.
I spoke of the split up that ACTUALLY happened, which is a true fact.
It occurred because the courts found that as a monopoly, AT&T was not only slowing down competition but also slowing down innovation.
Here we have Google using their dominance to fund their entry in to a completely different market where they are providing a service at below cost. This is a clear monopolistic act.
So we stopped one monopoly only to now allow another one to take its place.
AT&T was split up in to baby bells to stop their dominance in the telecommunication industry.
Google is selling a service at a loss to gain entrance in to the telecommunication industry and can do so because of their monopoly* in search.
In short, we've stopped one monopoly only to allow another to grow up and take its place.
*It takes a judge's ruling to declare that Google has a monopoly in search. So they are a defacto monopoly and are acting in a monopolistic behavior as they enter in to another market.
With respect to the 1Gb per sec... Having the fatter pipe means that the internet becomes less of a bottleneck. While no one today needs that bandwidth, can people remember back in the day when we had 300bps modems? (Yeah I could have said 110 acoustic but then I would be dating myself. ;-)
SSDs like mSATA drives can take more abuse and have enough storage capacity to handle storing maps.
The other thing to consider that the move is to wi-fi enable your car so that you can get updates to the maps over the air. (Also enable things like Traffic.com too)
The other thing to consider is that if your car is in the US, its highly unlikely to also be in Europe so why store Europe, Asia, Australia maps on your sat nav if you're never going to use them?
Just saying...
The interesting thing about the link...
1) The generators would be the size of a trailer truck's trailer.
2) The by product is helium.
This has a couple of interesting implications...
We could see more blimps until we generate too much helium instead of CO2 emissions.
(Venting gas because its cheaper than trying to capture it.)
But more interesting is the potential applications.
1) No more 'nuclear navy'. You could use one to power a ship which would be cheaper than diesel.
2) You could use it to power rail transportation. No more diesel engines. Just put this on a rail car behind the locomotive, or in place of the diesel/electric generators.
3) Shipping costs would drop
4) Urban transportation... Mag Lev is now feasible.
Sure I could make hospitals and high rises more self sufficient but smaller plants would make things like self sufficient and self healing grids for major metropolitian areas a reality.
You need to calculate the value of the lost opportunity by waiting and then you'll see why you should by the computer now, rather than wait. Upgrading could be a different matter.
To your point about solar...
You have to consider the cost of the panel, the cost of installation, and then the cost or potential of upgrading after the initial install.
Solar in an urban environment would be a way to reduce your energy footprint, however there are other considerations...
Like the fact that you've lost your ability to have a green roof. That is to say that you couldn't create a green environment to capture and use the rain water to reduce the gray water run off which ends up going in to the sewer system.
And if you wanted to capture that and use it for gray water in the toilets... Good luck the cost of the retrofit would kill you. (New construction would be different.)
What I would envision is a combination of solar and nuclear.
As the author points out... thorium could work, however it would be less efficient and potentially hazardous in terms of a natural disaster.
Note that while the author points to Japan... keep in mind that the plant was built in a quake zone and wasn't very well thought out. Not to mention that it was a first generation designed plant. Safer and alternative designs do exist as well as better plans for structural engineering.
While plutonium plants would be the most efficient, they would also be the most dangerous in terms of potential terrorist attack sites. You can't just declare it a superfund site and spend millions to clean it up.
If Fusion does work... that would be cool. Especially if you're Tesla.
(Think of a mini fusion reactor ever so often as a super charging station which could also feed back in to the grid and supply surplus energy. Then you just need to drive a heavy water truck up to top off its fuel supply.
(Depending on the efficiency, this could be the size of a small passenger van. )
First, didn't anyone warn you about the problems when you dip your pen in the company ink?
Second. If you have to wait until the X-mas party, you're too slow. You needed to make your move earlier, like during the Friday after work gathering down at the local pub.
Third... are in a time warp? The 'typing pool' went out with the 60's and early 70's.
Nowadays programmers routinely type faster than old school secretaries.
Just keeping it real.
Oh and just to keep it on topic, the trend is to create places where one could escape the pods. Sorry, but pods are not that efficient for those attempting to do serious work. Most who have to live in pods tend to drown out and zone out by putting on headphones and listening to music just so that they can think.
Give me a sterile office w a single coworker any day.
"And the rest. You have to pay 11-14% in employer based national insurance contributions. If you are employed at £100k then your take home is about £65k, if you are a contractor, caught by IR35, then your take home is about £56k and you get none of the benefits of employment."
The interesting thing is that its kinda the same in the US.
If you take a person who works for a company, and is paid a $100,000 salary, he gets taxed on his salary.
If you are a consultant and bill @ $50.00 for 2000 hours in a year, you make $100,000. gross.
In terms of taxes, you pay the corporations taxes plus what you would have normally paid. However, you have a lot more deductions that an employee doesn't get. To be fair, you come out ahead as an employee.
However... companies pay a premium to consultants. This premium ends up being greater than the taxes, and benefits of being an employee, not to mention you have the ability to pick and choose your projects.
In the US... its a bit different. Hopefully I can explain it.
You incorporate as an S Corp.
You earn money, and you pay your business expenses which become pre-tax deductions.
(Health Insurance, business expenses... etc...) The rest could be used for salary, or left in the company.
If left in the company, you pay a corporate tax. If you to take it out as salary, you pay taxes on the salary.
If you keep it in the company, you get taxed twice, once as corporate income, once has salary. Note you can take it out as a dividend, and while you escape payroll tax, the dividend is taxed as ordinary income.
In short... you end up with roughly the same result of IR35.
Thx for the input.
Is the issue that the guy was a 'captured' employee or that instead of running a payroll he just declared everything a dividend and avoided paying the tax?
In the states, you really can't do that.
If you don't incorporate, your 1099 money gets taxed as income and you will have to pay yourself a salary out of it and pay payroll taxes.
If you do incorporate, the client has to 1099 your corporation and you then have to show your income, expenses, salary, pre-tax deductions, taxes and then dividends which are taxed at ordinary income but you don't pay social security (payroll taxes)
So what am I missing?
When the Dyson first hit the states, we gave them a try. We have a house full of pets so you can imagine why we liked having a Dyson... But over the years, it wore out and it was time for a new one.
Unlike the first model, the new one felt cheaper and was a pain to use. Joints would freeze up, couldn't get the extension out of the handle. It lasted 2 years till we said the hell with it.
We replaced it with a Miele and even though its a bagged machine, it works great. Should last us 15-20 years or longer. We paid more than for other models, but we tend to buy things that last longer and want the best quality products we can afford.
If we had to guess, we'd say that Dyson cut corners on quality when they got really popular. Its a shame really.
And the AC is spot on. Gimmicks sell.
I think that one area could be in forest fire fighting tech.
You can load it up with far more water and fire retardant material that conventional aircraft.
You have greater loiter time that conventional fixed wing aircraft.
As you dump water, you run a compressor to remove the helium from the lift bags.
(There are a couple of options in terms of tanks and compressors.... )
In terms of replacing ocean shipping...
Depends on what is being shipped.
Same for air transport.
If you're shipping foodstuffs it would be cheaper than air freight, and you don't need it right away.
Other materials, it would depend on how costly it is for sea freight.
Once you get to your destination, which would be a port of call, you could tether up, and have larger pumps and storage tanks offload the excess helium quickly. As the cargo is unloaded, you refill the on board tanks and the cells as needed. Return home. You could in fact ship back the heavier tanks if you don't have enough cargo.
In terms of electricity... solar films could be an option...
Definitely a nice slow boat that doesn't have to worry about sharks, Somali pirates... ;-)
Sorry, but "There's an App for that!" has long been a joke's punchline.
I think had these guys done this as a criticism of the app world and the idea that you can create a silly app and make ton's of money... I would have given them a thumbs up.
As it is... it would have been more mature for them to actually not show if their original app failed to be ready on time...
@Dr. Xym.
It was the first gen Sony which did 1080i. And it died ~2yrs ago.
Never had to worry about heating the room with the monitor on. (It was a monitor, no tuner which is fine with me because all of the tuning was controlled from the cable box and it had no speakers....
I don't disagree with waiting. And that's part of my point. I bought the plasma because 1) I had the opportunity to get it at a great price (at the time) and 2) I needed a new television because my CRT was starting to die.
I was mad about having to buy my current TV because I was hoping that my Plasma would have lasted until "42 OLED TVs hit the market.
I agree 100% with your points... but when you have to buy a new set... do you buy one that's behind a bit on the curve, or the latest tech in your price range?
Marcelo,
When I bought my first gen Plasma, the set retailed in the US for 8,000.00. Today, I can get a better 42" TV for around $500.00 (USD) And of course if I want to get a much better set... I'd end up playing more.
To me, it was worth it because I had a TV I could hang on the wall and even though it weighed a ton, it was still a fraction of the weight of a CRT.
But here's my problem....
If I did what you suggest... buy a cheaper TV and then when the better TVs come out, buy a new one... two things happen.
1) Even today's signal would look better on a 4K than a FullHD set. (The set converts the image)
2) Tomorrow, I would have to ask what I would do with the FullHD set that still works? I mean why buy a new set when the old one still works? (I tend to be the guy who buys something and uses it until it dies.)
Mine's the jacket I have been wearing for 10 years because its still in one piece...
How long does your TV last?
We've had old tube TVs lasting 15+ years.
My first gen Sony Plasma lasted 10.
If we look at advancements in Networking as well as storage, along w 14nm lithography... We see faster delivery, cheaper and more efficient storage, and improvements in terms of CPU/GPU driving the video.
Imagine your 4K tv having an interface to slot a card the size of a postage stamp, only thicker that contains your movie along with some digital rights tech to keep the studios happy.
How far off is that? 3 yrs? 5 yrs? 10yrs?
You may not want to junk your current set, but if you're in the market to buy a new tv... You will want to future proof it.
Just saying...
A while back, I was talking to my nephew and he made a point that no one really wears a watch these days. You want to know what time it was, you pulled out your phone....
And that's true. The phone, when on, gets a clock signal from the telco and will always have the correct regional time and there is of course an app to set up world clocks...
And when I'm working, I hate the weight of a watch on my arm, so I take it off when doing some serious coding....
But I love watches. I have one 'beater' watch which is an electric COLT Breitling. (I call it a beater watch because it stands up to my daily abuse.) I have other more expensive watches too. One Manual and two automatics. I'd collect more, except that I'm married and the wife seems to find more ways to spend it... ;-)
To me, a watch, a real watch with moving pieces is a work of mechanical art. Its also a man's jewelry. A watch says a lot about the character and personality of the person.
If you want something that is cool and creative... when you can fit an atomic clock and its power source in to a pocket watch sized case, or even a large wristwatch, sign me up. Now that would be cool.
But I'll stick to my phone in my pocket because I need something I can use as a phone first, PDA second.
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