I actually live near a REAL one.
http://www.sciencebuzz.org/blo...
No, seriously, it's a hole in the ground, into which half of a decent-sized river dumps.
They have put everything from dye, to pingpong balls, to (amusingly) a car - and none of it has ever come up anywhere.
That quote from Banks (damn I actually miss him) illustrates that as much as academe might sneer at 'space opera' as not "real literature", this man demonstrated in one observation a better, more fundamental understanding of the development of civilizations than several shiploads of professors and a whole ark of anthropology grad students.
...that he will be strongly in favor of whatever the audience is in favor of in whatever venue he's speaking (because he won't really talk to Republicans anyway, so in that sense self-selecting).
Honestly, where do you live that consumers would tolerate having to ask the clerk to hand them stuff?
Here in the midwest US, sure, that's true for small high value electronics, jewelry, and cosmetics - none of which is commonly packaged like this, as you observed. Then again, they are what, 1% of purchase transactions?
Not to mention that the game is very sensitive to (perceived) reward levels.
Tweak some values up or down (or you don't even have to tweak the actual rewards, simply the perception of reward values) and the outcomes can vary radically.
Moreover, I think we can all agree that when it comes to mating strategies - which are really the only one that matters, evolutionarily - choices are not always based on cerebral, cogent weighting of costs, benefits, risks, and rewards...more often "opportunity", "desire", and frankly, "alcohol".
"Privacy" as formulated in 2015 is frankly a fairly modern concept. As much as people seem to assert "we used to have privacy" I suspect it was about as real as the 'Father Knows Best' prototypical TV family - ie not really.
For the bulk of human existence, we have lived in small family or clan groups. This meant that everyone not only knew everything about you, but (usually) everything about everyone you were related to, and your ancestors. Had a crazy g'great grandfather that got caught cheating on his wife? Everyone knows, and likely expects that you're not terribly faithful either. Mother was a drunk? Everyone knows, and expects you're probably a drunk too. You said bad things about the clan chief, odds are eventually he knew. You were not only responsible for what you said or believed, you were frequently called to account for it (fairly or not).
Privacy - the very concept of anonymity - was extraordinarily limited until literacy was widespread, and even then the idea that you'd write something and nobody knew who wrote it was ridiculous really until the printing press, and even then the number of people involved meant your risk of discovery probably was a steeper curve than your audience breadth until the modern era, and small-shop copy machines/mimeographs.
I don't see Gamma Ray Bursters, ergo, list is poppycock.
Yet if you gave readers the opportunity to turn on/off visible comments, I wonder which would win?
I'm almost certain most people would leave the comments, after all, you don't have to read them. Which then suggests that no, it really IS more about protecting themselves as the sole authority, because monologue is so much easier than dialogue.
Blame your fellow humans.
Believe me, companies would rather NOT have to spend more $ for expensive shell packaging, but its very challenging nature of opening significantly reduces pilferage and shoplifting.
"When you have a family, you'll understand the need for a simple NAS loaded with your media and simple to use screens for your family accessing it."
You mean, aside from my four kids in their late teens and twenties?
The funny thing is, with my 'early adopter' media server setup, yes, it's a little kludgy sometimes, but - at the risk of inflaming
Then again, I'm the guy who bought them the components for a sweet desktop gaming rig specifically so we could build it together and they'd learn something about the process.
OK, while I'm certainly down with a "because we can" sort of answer, I'm trying to understand how/why this would be better than wifi?
Right now, my office is served by a wifi AP that covers essentially my whole home - multiple rooms, levels, etc. While I guess I can see limited security benefits to having something carried on visible light (ie able to be limited to a single room easily) it doesn't seem like for the bulk of wire-free communication circumstances that this would really be useful?
Personally, I just want my TV to be a monitor: display a video signal as clearly and cleanly as possible.(optimally: with the lowest possible power use too). Is that too much to ask?
I don't need voice commands, hyperlinking to IMDB, or social media letting my friends know WTF kind of pr0n I watch.
Just like their warning about "well the TV is listening for your commands, so private info you say may also be inadvertently recorded and passed to third parties" - the former is sort of logically true, with any speech-recognition thing, of course. It's the LATTER that's evil: you as a company wringing every fucking *penny* out of my user data ("Oh, I see styopa switched aware from channel 4 when this Pepsi commercial came on? Let's let Ch4 and Pepsi both know!") without a) letting me know, and b) sharing it with me, if I opt to let you do it.
I'm sensing that there HAS to be a market out there for 'clean' tech products, no?
"You guys, I have to sit in a roomful of hippies (and ex-hippies now in $1000 suits) to produce these Climate Change reports. Seriously, if you are going to tell me I have to advocate Nuclear Power in that setting, I'm going to start expensing the rental of a goddamn shark cage.
-Bill"
As long as we also discuss (and repair) the gender diversity "problem" in
- executions
- felony convictions and imprisonment
- punishment for all crimes from misdemeanors to felonies
- deaths in the workplace
- low wage menial physical labor jobs
We're trying to fight sexism generally, aren't we?
If people are inspired to fear and not rage by what these people do, then they are benighted sheep that deserve to be preyed upon by wolves.
MESSAGE ACKNOWLEDGED -- The Pershing II missiles have been launched.
