It's not AI we need to fear... It's AI alien vampire zombie serial killers wearing masks...

Most wouldn't have any idea how to help you comply or care about their obligations under law.... But if it's just AutoCAD files, you don't need AutoDESK. In fact, you can provide better files with competing CAD packages.

Corel Suite X8 and CorelCAD... Not only do they replace pretty much everything that Autodesk and Adobe make, but they even work together.

CorelCAD is pretty good too. Getting on towards being a Solidworks alternative since the 2018 version.

And both, while they do have license checks and online activation, work quite happily without a connection, and you can even get a license file from Corel for offline activation if you want....

And there's a really cost-effective home/student version available too....

I know Corel are talking about subscription only in the future, but so far, they are picking up ex-Adobe customers for not having one, and the home price on Amazon probably cuts down on piracy. Meanwhile if Corel ever goes subscription only with the CAD, then there's Draftsight and Graebert Ares Commander, which are alternative providers for the same software.

If you don't like subscription software, move to non-subscription software. It's cheap enough to do so, and CorelCAD gives AutoCAD a real run for it's money IMO. ( It's an Autocad clone, so there's no learning curve... Similar UI, Same commands, works with AutoLISP etc. )

The paper system is far to easy to control and rig.

A better solution is to use computers in a way that provides a reasonable amount of certainty.

The way to do this would be via something like blockchain and public keys. Then make the entire voting record public after each election, but in it's encrypted form.

Anyone could check that their vote wasn't tampered with, and the results would still be secret. There would be far less failure to accept the result of an election if people had more certainty that the outcome wasn't tampered with.

This would also allow voting from home via the Internet, so polling places and the associated problems with them would disappear.

After this... Who cares about the mechanics such as how the vote is tallied. That would be something that changes over time based on other factors and cultural drives.

Don't forget to add how no one even has to train to be a Jedi any more... They just learn to meditate and *poof* Instant Jedi.

At least we now know that Anakin didn't kill the younglings, because according to "The Last Jedi" there's no way a trained sith could defeat an idiot with a lightsaber, let alone a little kid, and especially not a bunch of kids... Obi Wan must have just lied about the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

The Vantage Robotics UAV. Pretty light and safe.

If some idiot throws sticks at it, there's more danger from the sticks that knocked it down than the drone itself.

In the Burning Chrome Anthology, this short story, of all of Gibson's work, had a greater impact on my research than any other story he wrote.

He only co-wrote it too. It was written by Michael Swanwick and William Gibson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

They'll buy them tickets on a Russian or Chinese moon-shuttle service...

I'm not denying that there is a place for university courses and standardized testing. It's always been recognized. But if you're doing the same work as an engineer, for a similar period, then you're recognized as a PE in Australia after five years on the job.

I'm not arguing that one is better than the other - and readily admit that it's a lot easier if you can just get someone else to teach you - but if you're self-taught and applying it at a high level, every job is an exam and the pass-mark is 100%.

But calling me a technician is a little bit rude. All of our engineering work had to be done by us. This began with a design brief, and a project description. We'd design computers ( not assemble, design... ) and select the chips and chipset, measure up space and mounting points so we could design the circuit boards and begin putting together a new computer. No auto-routing - It was all done by hand to ensure we could achieve lower costs by using less layers - And we had to pre-calculate everything from power consumption to modes of failure. We had to create our own digital logic chips, and design of programmable logic was performed from data-sheets - not from high level applications.

When designing communications systems, we had to introduce error correction systems, and predict functionality of packet loss, and determine safe operating parameters with arbiter systems so that in the event of loss of control, the machine could be safely stopped.

When switching mains circuits, we had to calculate power factors and safe operating margins for all equipment, and unlike today when bugs are just a way of life, we had to demonstrate our computers would continue working under ALL conditions. A common test was for the boss ( a trained engineer and an expert ) to drop his keys onto our uncovered and uninsulated circuit boards and jingle them around, causing massive shorts, and our boards were not to fail in an unplanned method. All calculations had to be completed on time and any routines taking too long were trapped and reset, and the systems needed to come up from a reset without loss of data. Everything was designed to be redundant.Even code.

I'd suggest that's not the sort of stuff an engineer fresh out of uni could handle. Many struggled with the basics of electronics - especially timing circuits in digital systems. Most struggled with concepts such as building a UART from discrete logic, or constructing in-circuit emulators.

For those of us who did it the hard way, I'd suggest that the formal government recognition of our qualification as engineers was long overdue.

Kind of sad to take that kind of an attitude. As I mentioned, universities weren't capable of much more than "Heath Kit" lessons of the era - Yes, I did do some study at university prior to getting a job in a lab, even if I never completed a course. Meanwhile, mid-80's I was already building computers from scratch, writing the OS firmware and then finding ways to improve on the architecture of the era.

What exactly do you think I was going to learn at a university that I wasn't expected to already know in the field? The head of department at the university I did briefly attend had already provided me with exemptions in every electronic and computer hardware related unit that was a part of the course. Even they didn't expect me to demonstrate any further proficiency in those areas.

I get that you were trying for a mix of condescending and insulting with your 1 in 10,000 remark, but in reality, anyone who continues working as an engineer for five years in industry, without being fired for being incompetent, has demonstrated they know all of the appropriate calculations necessary to do their job. At that point, it's pretty much 1:1 and the kinds of mistakes that get made are usually the same kind of mistakes that even a uni-trained engineer will make.

Even now, I still have to verify engineering estimates and ensure that they are correct, and it's rare not to find engineering errors in a large project - some big enough to prevent project success.

Being self taught wasn't instead of learning - and if you like the subject, it's never a hard slug. Being self-taught was the price of entry just to get a job in some of those industries in the early days. Learning on the job and being taught on the job both occur from that point on. It's just like university, except the passing mark on a project is 100% or find another job. Or, to para-quote NASA, Failure is not an option.

The Australian government recognized that 5 years of practical on-the-job training is as good as 4 years of university training plus 4 years of on-the-job training. Because it takes 4 years to train someone to the level than an employer will even look at them. So allowing an additional year for a non-graduate engineer to be trained at an accelerated pace is reasonable.

After all, simply having the title "engineer" isn't sufficient - you have to be doing the same work as a graduate engineer would be expected to do. It's not like I got a free ride or anything. Some would regard having to complete the equivalent of four years of university in a single year to be even more onerous.

I'm not the only one either - I've worked with a lot of other non-graduate engineers as well as graduate engineers and they were all at a very high level. It's not uncommon, but maybe you just got a bad batch up in Canada or something.

Here's the qualification requirements;

3.2 Engineering stream

Experienced engineer means a Professional engineer with the undermentioned qualifications engaged in any particular employment where the adequate discharge of any portion of the duties requires qualifications of the employee as (or at least equal to those of) a member of Engineers Australia. The qualifications are as follows:

(a) membership of Engineers Australia;or

(b) having graduated in a four or five year course at a university recognised by Engineers Australia,four years’experience on professional engineering duties since becoming a Qualified engineer;or

(c) not having so graduated,five years of such experience.

Graduate engineer means a person who is the holder of a university degree (four or five year course) recognised by Engineers Australia or is the holder of a degree,diploma or other testamur which:

(d) has been issued by a technical university,an institute of technology,a European technical high school (technische hochschule) or polytechnic or other similar educational establishment;and

(e) is recognised by Engineers Australia as attaining a standard similar to a university degree;and has been issued following:

(i) a course of not less than four years duration for a full-time course after a standard of secondary education not less than the standard of examination for matriculation to an Australian university;or

(ii) a part-time course of sufficient duration to obtain a similar standard as a four year full-time course after a similar standard of secondary education.

Professional engineer means a person qualified to carry out professional engineering duties as defined. The term Professional engineer will embrace and include Graduate engineer and Experienced engineer as defined in this clause.

professional engineering duties means duties carried out by a person in any particular employment,the adequate discharge of any portion of which duties requires qualifications of the employee as (or at least equal to those of) a graduate member of Engineers Australia

As an industry trained engineer, I've been doing engineering for a few decades. From designing computers and electronics in the 80's to performing and presenting current scientific research, it's just been a part of my life, but previously, I could only refer to myself as an "Amateur Engineer". It's not that I'm not trained, I just wasn't trained in a university. Back in the 80's when I learned to design computers ( as an autodidact ) there simply wasn't a university path open for me as I was in high school at the time, and I was taken in by an R&D lab before I could study further and quickly gained skills and experience beyond what the universities were teaching at the time so never went back to university.

Still, not being able to refer to myself as an engineer caused many problem, especially when registering for government projects or work - where are best I could only call myself a "technician" despite having working in many roles where I was the lead engineer and managed other engineers. It made it pretty difficult finding new work at times also.

Now the Australian government has finally recognized that if you work as an engineer, doing the kind of work that an engineer would normally be expected to do, for a period of five cumulative years, you've proven your point and are recognized not only as an experienced engineer, but as a professional engineer.

Anyone might still be able to claim to be an engineer in Australia, but at least those who have spent years actually doing engineering as a career and were trained on-the-job have finally gained formal recognition as providers of professional services now, whether trained in a university or otherwise. And it's in legislation.

Future movies won't stream. Future movies will be that you download a script, several actors, default personality files and camera angle list as a single file.

Then the computer will just render the movie as you want.

Don't like the default Hugh Jackman as Wolverine? Fine. Replace the actor with Matt Damon and watch the movie your way.

3D printers aren't really suitable for people who just want to download and print stuff that other people have designed. In those applications, they are somewhere between novelty and a fad.

However, if you need to make your own 3D parts they are indispensable, and learning the software is absolutely necessary.

What's even more important is that any information such as this is presented before the judges, so that they can exercise their discretion in the first place. Judges are just like computer programs. They only process what they are given.

The original game was nothing special IMO. Sure, it was fun, but it lacked behind others of it's era. The Remake, however, was on another level. Some brilliant script writing, an engaging story and more humour than the original. It truly was something spectacular. I vividly recall the bitterly sad ending and hoping there would be a cutscene to save me from the misery of the constant loop around the finale. I mean, how often do you sit there, through 20 minutes of scrolling credits, just hoping something will change?

SW2, on the other hand, not so great. Script writing was so-so and poorly written. It's not quite a turd, and is still a lot of fun, but lacked in the storytelling that made Shadow Warrior a classic.I was disappointed but would still give the game my support even if I knew that before I purchased it - for a start, it's half the price of most other games and can easily run for a lot longer.

So while I recommended the first quite vocally, I'm a little more reserved on SW2. However, in light of the announcements that they are doing the right thing by their fans and removing DRM, it does push me more towards looking at the better aspects of the game rather than the ones I didn't enjoy so much.