I'm late to the party
But I believe in the KISS principle, so;
The Mobile Phone Co.
Bland, unthreatening, and unimaginative at first glance, but showing their true aspirations to own it all. You know, like 'Word'.
3821 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Jun 2007
Hm, massive cloud cover to cool the planet, that worked so well on Venus, didn't it?
And isn't water vapor a pretty potent green house gas in itself? The only plus side is that it does tend to precipitate out fairly quickly, when it condenses into big enough droplets. OTOH, vastly increasing the number of airborne particles could cause the size of individual droplets to decrease, keeping them aloft longer, making them more prone to re-evaporate when the weather conditions change, leading a net increase.
That would raise temperature, leading to more vapour, which would lead to bigger droplets and more rain, which would mean a net result of warmer, with less cloud cover, leaving us a bit behind in the game.
And the expected responce?
"Well, it initially showed a brief decrease in temperature before before it started climbing higher, so obviously, we just need to do more of it, since the infrastructure's already in place!"
"WTF? Did you just wake up from a coma?"
Well, I for one, am willing to cut the guy some slack (if he's serious). Obviously he has been boggled by the enormity of what has been done, and his brain rejects it!
Seriously, we sent a craft hundreds of millions of miles through the vastness of space, where it launched a frikkin' flying saucer swooping in vast arcs through an alien world's sky, then had a frikkin' laser armed nuclear powered tank parachute from it, then use a frikkin' jet pack to ease it near the surface, where it rappelled the final few meters to the surface of the world, and then starts vaporising frikkin' rocks!
His response? "NO FUCKING WAY!!"
Mine? "SWEEET!!" (Hence the icon.)
"Perhaps in another 29 years, we'll be able to do what we did... 29 years ago."
I'm still waiting to see if we can do, and nearly did, over 40 years ago! Pfft, we should've had stations on Mars by now, not one little satellite barely holding orbit over Earth!
/rant But NOOOOO! We decided to keep all our eggs close in one basket, never mind that it's sitting in the middle of the cosmic equivalent of fastball practice at Camp Walleye.
One errant rock, or an unexpected belch from ol" Sol, and Oops, there goes all the (semi)intelligent life that we know about in the universe... But eh, we saved enough money to bomb Butfuckistan for 3 more hours, so it was worth it! rant/
Methane is easier to manufacture and store than hydrogen, not to mention cheaper, easier and safer.
So why is it there's never any news about development of it as an alternative fuel for vehicles? Is it public perception (who wants to drive a "fartmobile?, or is there some major downside to its use that I'm not aware of?
No, seriously, this puzzles me.
But seriously, did they even take 2 seconds to think about it? Just off the top of my (bruised) head, I came up with "Windows "Wonder". There's a bakery in the US they may have to slip a few bucks to, to keep'em from harping, but that's about it,
(Of course, it still has comedy potential, but I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader.)
"A mob of peasants with torches and pitchforks marching on the castle to finally get rid of the vampire?"
Wrong monster, we're dealing with a high level troll here, not a vampire! So forget the stake, it has no heart!
Hmm, a headshot'll take out a zombie, but that won't work here either, no brain!
Likewise, treating it like a werewolf and using silver won't won't work, in fact, that would backfire as it'd simply grab the silver and crow about a new source of funding!
The best option is to keep treating it like the troll it is, keep the light of day on it! The problem is that it's such a shady beast, it's taking forever for it to die! (Hmm, cold iron works on trolls too. So quick! somebody cut power to it's server!)
I'll be getting my coat now.
Yeah, those first three companies gobble up millions in "development" just to tell you how many millions it'll take to design a prototype. There are many smaller companies* that'd deliver a working product for what the big three use in development, but they have neither the lobbying power nor the contacts to get the contracts.
Let's face it, if if weren't for the military/government pork gravy trough, the only name on that list would be IBM, the rest would've gone under decades ago.
*Elon Musk's little rocket company is a prime example. For a fraction of what the above three have eaten in "development", he's produced a space capability equal to most space-faring nations.
"Why do I always, but always, find out about these rich people with open wallets willing to pay for scribbles after they've closed them, not while they are still open?"
Contacts, my good man, contacts! You've gotta get out there and network if you want to be in on the latest cash. (You don't really think people actually like to play golf enough to account for those club fees do you?)
OK... So if I'm following this right... (Note: Words and phrases in quotes are long scientific explanations boiled down to their cartoon equivalents.)
Said physicist built a tiny virtual "doorway" and rigged it so that any photon that wandered through got "whacked on the noggin with a tiny virtual mallet".
One wanders through, and a bit later, another followed. Then he asked them both at the same time, "How many fingers am I holding up?", and they both said, "Mommy?"... So how does this show time travel?
You really want to blow a kids mind? Point out that anyone over 50 is older than the states of Hawaii and Alaska, not to mention modern shopping malls!*
"Wow! Did granpa ride a dinosaur to school?"
*The first enclosed mall called Southdale opened in Edina, Minnesota (near Minneapolis) in 1956. Hawaii and Alaska became states in 1959.
It's just changed its name to eComStation. Just got the newsletter today about the upgrades to run it on modern hardware.
(Seems eCom leased the rights to maintain and distribute it when IBM dropped support.)
I get the impression that you promoted a Fine Arts graduate to the head of the Design department after discovering him/her working in the the cafeteria pool.
Please tell us who this person is so that the rest of the corporate world will know who to never, EVER place in such a position again!
Yes, Parliment turned it down... this time.
But if it gets the blessing of the Court, or gets tweaked just enough that will, it'll be presented for vote again and again until they give in and pass it.
At least that's what the plan looks like me. This thing's going to have more lives than Jason.
Karel De Gucht European Commissioner for Trade says ACTA will be law despite Parliment
Quote:"If you decide for a negative vote before the European Court rules, let me tell you that the Commission will nonetheless continue to pursue the current procedure before the Court, as we are entitled to do. A negative vote will not stop the proceedings before the Court of Justice.
If the Court questions the conformity of the agreement with the Treaties we will assess at that stage how this can be addressed.
However, I expect that the Court will instead find ACTA to be fully in conformity with the Treaties."
So damn the democracy, FULL ACTA AHEAD!
If You think like an exec, instead of a tech, then obviously plan B is:
Quietly find a buyer.
Once deal is set, announce a "merger".
Board members get pensions/positions in new "merged" company.
Stockholders get stock in new company for Nokia stock and gain a few cents.
After a year, announce retirement of entire Nokia line of products/services/lable.
Redundant execs get golden parachutes, grunts get the door.
Stock in "merged" company (which had been slipping since the merger) gets a boost at the news.
See? A perfectly viable plan that keeps the stockholders happy, and enrichs the current board members!
What about the products you ask? Don't be naivé! This is business, not a factory line!