Posts by Charles 9 16605 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009
Not quite. You forget there are plenty of performance-intensive x86 MacOS applications out there. Plus the whole VM problem (Atom is NOT VM-capable, last I checked).
I think VMs will be the real problem. They weren't a thing in the 68K->PPC or the PPC->x86 transitions, but now this can be a major obstacle to transitioning away from x86.
"I would expect that to part of the overhaul of the system. Valuing parenthood is something 1st world countries should be doing."
But even parenting comes second to "a roof over their heads", as shelter tends to be a prerequisite, and the situation appears to be a crisis of a social rather than political nature. Consider that no one's willing to mention the O-word in public, and there's more than one form of overpopulation. And before you start with the whole "state of Texas" bit, I've heard of Stand on Zanzibar. Basically, when things get crowded, fuses get short, and that's an instinct thing more than anything else, so there's no way you can fix this without pushback.
"Your standard household land-line telephone had an always-on microphone. Your cell phone has an always-on microphone. Your bluetooth headset has an always-on microphone."
Last I checked, the telephone's handset cradle switch is usually mechanical and opens the circuit for either the handset or the phone line (especially for dumb phones since they're powered by the phone line). Either way, an open circuit by definition turns the device off.
The bluetooth headset can't operate without power. Turn the power off or run the battery down and there's no power for the mic.
The cell phone I'll give you since we usually strive to keep it powered.
Much as I like the Yoko Kanno reference, I actually keep a better-known piece of his as a potential ringtone: "Tank!", a jazz piece he made with a group called The Seatbelts. I actually use different ring and notification tones to tell me the nature of the incoming transmission. My generic ringtone is the theme from Beavis and Butt-head (which is actually a nice-sounding smooth-paced piece of instrumental rock), and my notification tone the doorbell from Star Trek: The Next Generation (quick and easy to catch). If I hear something else, I can determine its nature quickly (work, acquaintance, app, etc.).
Or how dense your population. I mean, how many people total are there in the South Island? The biggest city they have down there is Christchurch, and it's still smaller than the likes of Wellington and especially Auckland on the North Island. If you want to prove the worthiness of renewable power, you need to be able to handle even the worst cases, and frankly, even Auckland isn't a real challenge compared to the major metropolises across the water in Australia: Perth, Brisbane, and especially Melbourne and Sydney.
I thought I heard that the best offense is a good defense because it's the offense that has to exert itself in dislodging you. Then, when they tire, you see the opening and counterattack.
In truth, it's not absolute either way. Sieges can go either way so you have to assess things from your perspective as you go. Is the offense tiring so you can counterattack? Or are they just biding time before reinforcements come in?
I don't know about that. Renting means the product never changes hands. Meaning WHEN (not IF) there's a serious problem like a security breach, then the manufacturer retains responsibility and liability (which likely can't be signed away by contracts due to consumer protection laws).
Unless that Windows-ONLY software ALSO runs custom (read: unable to be virtualized) hardware, too. Read the notes about the computer-controlled lathe forced to stay on XP because it runs a custom proprietary card on an ISA bus (ISA dropped with Vista, and custom card can't be virtualized) yet MUST be accessible from a network AND the computer can't be replaced without replacing the entire six-figure machine (which was still shortly into its amortization).
Then they'll just patent the same thing in a cylindrical or semispheric shape and work around you. The best weapon against a patent is another patent if you have the resources to survive the siege of a patent war. That's how Google survived the assault of MPEG-LA with its VP codecs intact.
"And how many conductors are we talking? Four four headphones, maybe a dozen or two for scanners and printers? It's a long way from a bendy screen."
Couldn't you say the same thing about laptop designs that need to carry video signals and usually audio because the speakers are on the display half? If there are antennae on the display half, those wires would need to be included, too.
"The most profitable tablets, iPads, are squarer than video's 16:9."
Because they're usually held vertically (in portrait configuration), and the aspect ratio an iPad uses is closer to that of paper, making it a better tool for reading. Since you don't see landscape-designed (horizontal) iPads, it's supposedly what works, whereas Android tablets can vary considerably in their aspects and orientations.
Microtrenching will work for optical cables and the like, but if you're going to trench an area, the most important stuff to trench would be the power cables, which require special handling and are tougher to fix when broken while buried. Temember, part of the panhandle's problem was that everything was knocked down: including the power.
But this is a coastal area, meaning a high water table. Always a risk of an underwater access flooding in such a place, plus some stuff like transformers have to stay above ground (speak from experience -- Pacific island prone to typhoons; trenched cables out of necessity, yet there can still be outages).
You can't do that with transnationals. They'll just threaten to pull up stakes, meaning no more taxes from them. If they still need to do business in the EU, they'll finagle some splinter company that isn't connected to the mother company to be a go-between with almost no turnover, meaning trying to squeeze blood out of a stone. The problem any country faces is that a transnational can simply relocate their operations outside their sovereign influence.
I think Buy-N-Large was modeled more on Walmart than Amazon (note the hypermart references), but in the end it's just capitalism at work; sooner or later, you're going to have a winner with enough influence to set even governments aside (see the Gilded Age).
It's simple. Transnationals like Amazon can play countries against each other. You see the same thing with big oil. Not even sovereign governments can get much play on them because they can threaten to move their operations to another country (small ones like Ireland that have low upkeep costs), taking away their tax bases and leaving governments with a dilemma: do you settle for 10% of something or risk 100% of nothing?
"Setting aside the usual 'elephant in the room' of really secure doors (the glass in the windows)"
Which itself sets aside the usual solution for places where the windows are targeted (burglar bars set into studs or concrete--the only quick solution would, like those doors, be VERY destructive)...
Did they dump the rest of their phones? Because last I checked, those countries in question made an ultimatum: their citizens' data in their country or no sales ever again. And since they're sovereign and hold the keys, that put them in a Hobson's Choice (Take It Or Leave It), and if they left it, odds are someone else would've stepped in and bent over, putting everyone in the same leaky boat.
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