Posts by xperroni 557 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Jul 2010
Now that women have equal rights, they can take paying jobs and support themselves; not like ancient times, where every woman had to be married so her parents wouldn't have to be the ones to feed her.
Yes, because women only care about money and power. It's only us men who miss the company of a kindred soul; woe to us, who cannot anymore just go out and buy a woman to our liking!
Oh wait...
It is kind of funny and kind of sad at the same time seeing Microsoft and Intel constantly struggle trying to expand beyond their PC market. Microsoft loses billions on boondoggles like MSN, Bing and XBox, Intel loses billions on Itanium and mobile SoCs. The sad fact is both are almost completely dependent on the PC market - both making over 100% of their profit in that market segment. If there's ever a true disruption that hurts that market, both are going to be in serious trouble.
Though you do see why they do that, right? You said it yourself: if the PC market were ever to go away, Intel and Microsoft would be pretty much done for. Unless they'd rather do like the cancer tobacco industry – simply accept their time will run out eventually and rake in as much as possible before the inevitable curtain fall – they must find a way into other / newer markets.
We need the capability to shine a light into the activities of the worst individuals who pose the gravest threats.
I just love how the only response to terrorism the G-men can ever think of is more surveillance. How about Western powers stop bombarding, occupying and otherwise being real jerks to Middle East countries (as well as everywhere else)? I bet it would help avoid an attack or two.
My iPad would be much cooler with an aerial. Apple, take note.
Funny thing, mobile devices with embedded TV are big in Asia. A lot of Chinese no-brand phones (smart and dumb alike) pack analog TV receptors, while many Japanese devices support 1seg. Some, like my own Android 2.3 LUMIX Phone, even include an extensible antenna, though many don't bother. I haven't checked if they do tablets, but I bet they do.
So the good news is that you can have an aerial-equipped tablet! All you have to do is (1) take a trip to Asia and (2) abandon your false Apple god for the Truth and Glory of Our Saviour Google and His Prophet Android. A bit of tourism, a nifty piece of kit and salvation to your immortal soul all in one go, what's not to like?
Please don't expect us to take anything Ray Kurzweil says as being even within spitting distance of objective reality. The man has been absolutely full of it for years.
From which I gather that whatever appears on Kurzweil's website is automatically bogus, regardless of whether he's just reporting on research done by others?
I guess we should warn someone at MIT, then. Their Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences has just been outed!
Also, I am curious: when you say "us", in whose name do you speak?
Recognizing an object is "A Car" rather than "A Table" is a damn sight easier (though admittedly still not easy) than recognising [a whole list of things mostly irrelevant in the context of autonomous driving].
Why, yes, and you could make pretty much the same point about how chess-playing computers lag so hopelessly behind humans in a host of cognitive tasks. Didn't do Kasparov any good, though.
Do we really think that a computer vision system will be better than the human vision system after a mere few years' development?
Why, yes, I guess we do.
I reckon the current phablet trend is just the late adopters copying the early adopters..., they'll soon with they hadn't, and next time round will be back at smaller sizes (or more likely folding devices).
The Readius e-reader developed by Phillips spin-off Polymer Vision had a foldable e-paper screen, but sadly both device and company sank a few years back. Maybe it's time we revisit the concept?
Maybe they just never heard of it? I hadn't.
Also I found no straightforward way to download anything. The main content repository seems to be a Dropbox share but you cannot download any sizable part of it (say the English subfolder) from the web, you'd need to install the desktop plug-in for that. Wikipedia for Schools includes a "download" link that actually sends you to a page stating (halfway through a lot of unrelated topics) that "[t]he full Wikipedia for Schools 2013 edition will soon be available to download via BitTorrent. Watch this space for updates..." I didn't find any indication that other resources (say, Khan Academy videos) could be downloaded separately, but given that dead end I didn't look much.
Then there are rather misleading instructions on how to install "RACHEL servers" that are actually just web servers with the project's content loaded, but how to get the damned content in order to put it in the server isn't clearly explained anywhere... Compared to this sorry mess Lantern does seem like a rather tight proposition: order it, turn it on, connect to the wi-fi hotspot, start reading, mind the updates every now and again. So not so much reinventing the wheel as getting it right the second time around?
Despite the touchy-feely and somewhat patronizing crap about teaching kids, supporting democracy and otherwise spreading Western greatness to "remote corner[s] of the world", I kind of like the idea of an offline web cache that dubs as a satellite receiver. And it seems far more doable than the "cubesat" nonsense they were touting earlier. Let's see how this one plays out.
Why the Hell the link purportedly leading to a previous story about Outernet actually sends us to a piece on an RBS and Natwest titsup from 2012? Is it some sort of practical joke non-Brits aren't supposed to get?
The original Outernet story is here, by the way.
Really, there's no need to rush stuff this badly, I doubt anyone would have bothered if it took another couple hours to hear about this.
You obviously never had to work with Huawei software.
I did work with some Taiwanese developers during the glorious days when feature phones were prominent, though. They'd get this wrong the other way around, trying to cram into compile time customization features that were better left to be done at runtime.
Alas, poor boy. All his money could buy him no love... Or taste.
I am no stranger to the concept of spending lavishly to woo a significant other, but how were 99 iPhones supposed to do the trick? For that kind of money he might as well have bought a crazy-expensive engagement ring, rented a sports car and taken her to a fancy restaurant, then proposed over some unreasonably priced food and drinks. Go figure...
I heard that Japanese women prefer to marry foreigners, as the Japanese salarymen have no work/life balance.
It's... Complicated.
On one hand there is this folklore about white guys becoming instant chick magnets the moment they set foot in Japan. On the other, there are the not-so-subtle jokes with Japanese women shrieking in panic at the prospect of getting engaged to "a foreigner". And then there are the stupid gits running amok, making a bad name for everyone.
That said, from what long-staying friends and acquaintances I have, it does seems that marrying a native is a common path to settling on the isles. Not that I would know it myself, I was already married by the time I got here...
It's obvious that very few people nowadays walk dogs in the rain
And that is just one reason I'm a cat person.
Seriously though, there are of course a number of activities where a wristwatch is a more convenient timepiece than a pocket gadget, which might explain why they're still around. But for many people, me among them, they provide no added value. By all means, though, if you have cause to wear a wristwatch, or just like the things, buy them to your heart's content, I won't judge.
I lived The Time Before Cellphones, and I was pretty much used to have a wristwatch on me except during a bath and after going to bed. At the time I liked them a whole deal more than mobile phones, for which I felt no desire or need when they first became mainstream; in fact at the beginning I actively resisted owning one, only giving in after repeated (and more than a bit pushy) offers from my parents.
For years after that I tried to keep the habit of wearing a wristwatch, but ultimately failed to find any justification to have a second timepiece, given the phone I was forced to carry already could tell the time, wake me up at set times, remind me of appointments, work as calculator etc. The couple extra seconds it would take to fish it from my pocket didn't prove to be enough of a bother, giving I was never in such a hurry to know the time, and for most of my day I would stand in front of a computer screen with a clock right there in the corner anyway.
You see, it's not that I didn't like wristwatches, or never had the chance to try one and see how nice they are. It's that as long as I own a reasonably-sized smartphone that fits well into my trousers' front pockets, the economic case for a wrist-mounted device will remain pretty weak. Maybe if smartphone makers commit themselves to only marketing oversized monstrosities that can only be carried on a briefcase, backpack or man-purse (an oxymoron?) I might be swayed back, but until then my wrist will remain a no-device's land.
Ach, you young people do not remember how it was, back in the the beginning.
I do remember, but technology is supposed to move forward, yes? I mean, just as if I were to launch a new computer application today, and it came out filled with bugs and security holes
Ah.
I did [look for the NASA quote on E-Cat] ages ago. It was something like "If it works, it would be great". No-one from NASA has said "It is not a scam", which leads me to ask: Why do the E-Cat guys need to publicise a miss-quote?
Uh, NASA was publishing designs created on the assumption that E-Cat works as late as this year.
Low Energy Nuclear Reaction Aircraft
http://nari.arc.nasa.gov/node/259
The objective of this project was to explore the use of LENR as an energy source for aircraft. This report includes descriptions of different LENR propulsion or energy conversion systems, synergistic missions, and some aircraft concepts. Brief discussions of constraints that are removed by LENR and new constraints that arise are also included. This report concludes with potential research areas to infuse LENR aircraft into NASA research.
Also this piece from early this month quotes NASA's Michael Nelson as saying:
I was impressed with the work that was done to insure the measurements claiming a 3.2 to 3.6 COP were accurate. Aside from the fact that this could not have been produced from any known chemical reaction, the most significant finding to me is the evidence of isotopic shifts in lithium and nickel. Understanding this could possibly be the beginning of a whole new era in both material transmutations and energy for the planet and for space exploration. This is an exciting time to live in and this is an exciting technology to witness come about.
Unless the quote was mis-attributed and/or made up through-and-through, I'd say it's quite hard to misread it.
Mind you, I'm just as skeptical as anyone. But some people not usually taken for fools seem to think this might be the real deal, so perhaps we should give it the benefit of the doubt? After the latest report it is expected that the E-Cat team will apply for a patent for their method, and then we'd be able to get more details on it.
And there's a lot less hand-eye coordination involved in using a keyboard compared to using a mouse or touch. Better for the eyes, better for the hands.
When I started on my last corporate job one colleague caught eye of my rather widespread usage of keyboard shortcuts. So he came to my desk and asked, "Did you taught computer training classes?" When I answered negatively he remarked that "only computer class teachers use keyboard shortcuts". I had the distinct impression he was being derisive, as if knowing how to efficiently use my main everyday work tool was something to be ashamed of.
So apparently it's not that people just don't know the benefits of keyboard-based interfaces, they actively resist it as an "uncool" activity. Go figure.
A wedgie eating roadkill can ruin your whole day. You come over a crest at 100km/h, the wedgie takes off but it's big so it doesn't rise fast enough, and the next thing you know the massive eagle has smashed through your windscreen and into your face.
I bet the eagle's day wouldn't fare any better...
"Wedgetail eagle" you say? Never heard of it, let's look for some pics...
Aye, I see what you mean. Feathered legs and rather long tail feathers, alright.
WTF! Look at the size of that, did that eagle just kill a... a... Wait, what is that? A kangaroo?!
Ah, so it's Australian. Suddenly it all makes sense.
Hadn't pretty much the same thing been done more than ten years ago? Get on with the scalpel already.
"I don't think this finishes the Bigfoot myth at all.”
I agree. No amount of evidence can ever kill a myth, because the people upholding it are not trying (however awkwardly) to make sense of the real world in its own terms. In their minds the truth has already been found, all they need is to produce some proof, so "they will all see". Hell, 20% of Americans still think the Sun goes around the Earth!
Not sure whether psychotic attack or trying to make sense?
Psychotic breakdown apart, he does have a point. The company is called "Hacking Team", for the gods' sake. They don't make the slightest effort to disguise what services they offer, either – here, just take a look at their website, which by the way is Google-indexed. Kudos to Kaspersky for mapping the C/C servers, but really, these guys couldn't be more conspicuous if they stuck an "EVIL SCIENTIST LAIR" written sign in their offices' front lawn.
Either one of those defenses might invalidate an assassination. It's hard to say really, but if you find yourself facing a judge on charges of attempted assassination either one of those defenses is probably worth trying.
No.
Sorry, but I'd rather take my chances with "it wasn't me", "I didn't do it" or "but I have an alibi". Which one would depend on the circumstances, I'd have to play it by the ear.
PS: That thing on the walls isn't chocolate, it's mold. Stop eating it.
No it isn't.
Fine, bit of hyperbole. The Chromebook FAQ does say that "[f]or the rare times when you’re disconnected from the Internet, you can use offline-ready apps to stay productive." Still it's clear that a working Internet connection is very important for the thing to work properly.
On the other hand, I have 200MB on my mobile phone contract which is usually enough to cover traveling between wifi spots during the month...
Except not all carriers allow wi-fi tethering from a handset, or charge for it as a separate service. And even where that's not the case, or can be circumvented (which is, at best, trying to get two wrongs to make a right), that's beside the matter: buyers were told they'd get two years' worth of free service. Verizon (with or without Google's tacit consent) cannot go back on its word now. Really, it's an open and shut case.
But what I find really disturbing in this episode isn't so much that the free plans are seemingly being terminated without so much as a warning message, before or after the fact; it's how many people here seem to think it's alright for big companies to screw their own customers. Surely you don't believe you're "safe" from corporate malice just because you know a thing or two about computers?
On the other hand, if it's such small fry that people shouldn't have the right to complain, why not live up to what it says on the tin web page? I bet many a user have a faster wi-fi network at home, but relied on the LTE connection while on the run. Remember, without an Internet connection a chromebook is dead weight, so to suddenly find oneself without mobile support is very likely a big deal to them.
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