Comment Re:Separation of Powers (Score 1) 703
Well, if you want to get technical, the Constitution, as both 'law of the land' and 'guiding principle' lasted until the Alien and Sedition act, which was, what, less than a decade?
But the whole point of the project was to use cheaper, more off-the-shelf parts and components. Given that it's now ten years past it's 'guaranteed' lifespan, I don't think they did anything wrong.
Did FRAM even exist ten years ago?
The problem with the constitution was that it was largely a theoretical document. The Framers didn't have a lot of real-world examples to draw upon.
For example, the idea that all voting members would vote individually on each issue, and that nobody would ever form voting blocs or parties.
Or the idea that the loser in the presidential election should be VP.
How do you deal with, say, NTP update fixing your clock drift?
Personally, I like the idea of a 'second' being of variable length far better than shoehorning a '60' into a field that's clearly defined as '0 to 59'.
The majority of electricity is produced by doing something that wrecks the planet somehow, according to somebody.
The point is that electricity is an interesting way to power a car because we can think of more ways of making electricity - both now and in the future - than we can of making gasoline.
The same is true of hydrogen. For instance, you can make hydrogen via electrolysis. If you are somewhere with abundant, cheap, clean electricity - like Iceland - then dumping off-peak electricity into electrolosys so you can store H-gas might be an interesting process.
In fact, I saw Shell stations in Iceland that were providing hydrogen refueling in the mid 2000s. I have no idea where they were getting the Hydrogen from, but experimenting with alternative energy/power production systems is a good idea.
How many planets with liquid water, an atmosphere and a magnetosphere?
It's not even as simple as this. Even now, my kids public schools have material on the shelf that says 'all life gains energy from the sun, or via a linear chain of eating something that did,' but then have to point out that this is now proven wrong. Like the man said, 'It's life, Jim, but not as we know it.'
The odds that an individual sperm containing half of your DNA would be the one to fertilize an egg are so long that you can not possible exist. (Anybody got a car analogy?)
In Ontario, a license plate consists of seven alphanumerics. Call it 36 options per slot.
Tell me a license plate you saw on the way to work. Well, that's bullshit. There's a 1 in 36x36x36x36x36x36x36, or 1 in 78,364,164,096 chance you could have seen that license plate. Therefore, an omnipotent being MUST have put that exact license plate there.
That's the argument a lot of creationists try to put forward. 'The human genome is blah blah long, with blah blah possible combinations, so you personally couldn't have 'evolved,' the chances are too slim.' It's reductio ad absurdum.
Somebody needs to go re-read Revelations.
Remember, Christianity is an apocalyptic religion.
At some point, my iPod Classic is going to bite the dust and I'd love something that is a similar size that can store my large music (and video) collection and have a decent battery life.
This could have been it, but with an old version of Android and a stupid price point, I think I'll pass. Hopefully they'll come up with something that is less audiophile and more useful for the masses.
But they are right about the software, never has it been more insecure and more geared towards grabbing up your data and marketing/profiting from it.
The only thing I can think of that involves "grabbing up your data and marketing/profiting from it" would be iAd and that's hardly a large part of Apple.
What's your proof that Apple are making a massive play to slurp up your personal data and use it in the way Google would?
"Show business is just like high school, except you get paid." - Martin Mull
