Comment Where the $900 ? (Score 3, Interesting) 33
I'm unclear : where exactly is this $900 per month coming from and going to ?
They have been testing a single swapping station with a limited number of cars. Maybe they are now planning to build more
How will an OTA software update build more battery swapping stations?
.. the definition of "punishment". One central requirement is that the person punished can learn something from it.
Thanks for sharing your definition. It is not what my dictionaries say, they are about it being a penalty, not a school lesson. Try this one as it's handy. How does prison fit into your definition? From what I've heard, not much learning takes place there that is not orthogonal to the issue of ethics.
You remind me of a corny schoolboy joke
Judge [to condemed burglar] ; "I hope you have learned from this my man!"
Burglar : "Yes m'Lord, I've learned not to get caught next time."
In a Machiavellian sense, he (some policital criminal) could be used, for example, as a figurehead to drum up support from the people who he was able to drum up support from before, in order to follow a political agenda
We saw that with IRA prisoners in the UK. Even in prison they continued to make waves, make news (such as hunger strikes), and even continue to administrate campaigns via the communications of visitors which the civil rights people insist on being allowed. OTOH, once someone is executed, the news media (and they are what matters) soon lose interest as long as there is no mystery about it - which is why assasination keeps someone "alive" in the public mind more than execution does.
Whichever side you are on (and this applies to "both" sides") these are just facts, in a Machiavellian sense.
I'm sorry you're too simple minded to realize
As the alternative to execution is life (or at least long) imprisonment, the "innocent" people are still going to be unjustly punished, have their "life" stolen from them. By your argument we must never punish anyone for anything, in case the verdict is wrong.
You do realize that it costs significantly more money to see a death-penalty case from start to finish than it does to see a case where the penalty is life without parole?
Only because the USA's lunatic legal system and the fact that lawyers are allowed to make perpetual work for themselves. These endless cycles of appeal are allowed even when it is bleedin' obvious that the guy is guilty - in fact they don't even claim that in many cases, instead claiming some bullshit excuse.
Not so long ago, the condemned were take straight out and hung, and the total cost was half-a-crown to the hangman. I would not advocate a return to that, but some common sense needs injecting here.
It costs twice as much to house a death-row inmate during the appeals
Why does it cost any more to house someone on death row than "in jail for life" ? Talking about the housing here, not the appeals nonsense.
Nazi Germany serves as a well-known historical example of how certain policies can have disastrous effects,
History shows that nothing ever occurs the same way twice. There are just too many factors (both random and non-random) involved. I think the onus is on those who advocate ANY policy to try to show that it will not go pear shaped. Just saying it is the opposite of what Hitler would have done is not good enough.
Hitler with his silly hair cut and ridiculous mustache
May I remind you that the mustache and haircut was pretty common in that time.
What has "people who did a lot of good" have to do with it? The fact is that the style was quite common at the time. Charlie Chaplin had one. It was Hitler who made it go out of fashion (like the name "Adolf" too). Despite that there were plenty of old farts who still wore Chaplin-Hitler type mustaches in the 1950's and 60's. One of my schoolteachers did - we called him "Hitler".
The BBC, a profoundly well-known tax-funded State organization
Not tax funded. It is funded by the TV licence fee, a different thing.
then shafted every other business in that home computing field by adding their name to the product and taking a cut of the profits
What BS - sounds like you are airing a pet issue . Were you in the UK at that time? I was, and the BBC micro cetainly did not "shaft" every or any other business. Amstrad and Sinclair computers were much more popular. I only knew one person who bought a BBC micro, he was middle-aged and bought it second-hand. The BBC micros had the image of being geared to education and wee thus rather boring.
A quick visit to Wikipedia confirms that only 1.5 million BBCs were sold. Amstrad sold 3 million CPCs around that time and 8 million PCWs. Meanwhile Sinclair sold 5 million Spectrums.
These days, so many "respected" organisations sell their name to be attached to commercial products (my Alma Mater even rents its name to be put on credit cards) that surely people realise it means nothing anymore.
"The BBC does not see Micro Bit as a rival to
It has a C++ compiler but is not complex? Seriously, intoducing kids to coding using C++? Things like the RPi don't need a springboard to reach them anyway. All these things can be used as simple as you like or as complex as you like. What OS is this thing using anyway?
the BBC is being careful not to repeat the mistakes of the BBC Microcomputer launch, which angered rivals such as Sinclair
Why was "angering" Sinclair a "mistake"? He was just another micro manufacturer so was hardly to be expected to welcome a new rival. Couldn't they have told him to f#@k off?
the BBC is working with several partners, including chip-designer Arm, Microsoft and Samsung, to get the end product right.
Microsoft? Now they are angering me.
I don't think Apple is too worried about this, except if consumers are fooled into buying one. No one wants to show off a knock-off status symbol. It defeats the entire purpose.
But someone who buys a knock-off is not generally going to announce to people that it is a knock-off. So, if it looks the part, the knock-off is going to be just as effective as a staus symbol as the real thing.
Or just as ineffective. The very existence of the knock-offs defeats the status symbol, because even if you buy that $10,000 one, people are just going to assume that it is a knock-off.
I knew a woman who owned a really large diamond, worn in a necklace. When people saw it they would ask if it was real, and she would say "Of course not!". But it was real. Either she did not want to look super-vain, or did not want to risk it being stolen. I suppose she had it for self-gratification or as an investement, but as a status symbol it was pointless.
I can't tell the difference between a bar of gold, and a bar of gold hollowed out and filled with lead*.
Archimedes sorted that problem years ago.
Then you're also in favour of demolishing the William Gates building at several universities
No, but I'd take his f#@king name off the wall.
Microsoft are losing ground to Google, Amazon Web Services etc
Ah, the old
What did the GP statement have to do with competence? As for market share, then Rolls Royces and top-end BMWs must be the worse cars you can buy.
A teacher cannot be a billboard.
By that logic, nobody should be teaching mechanics how to repair a Subaru, cuz.. y know all mechanics should know how every single car works.
Yes, in principle they should. Car mechanics should be able, and do, move between different dealerships. They soon pick up the differences. (I have been a manager at one and have seen it.)
I know that universities and their courses have been debased in recent years, but it should not be a universitiy's place to be vendor specific. I did an engineering degree course without any vendor specific-ness whatsoever, including eg how gas turbines worked. We learned to do the fluid flow and thermodynamic calculations. Subsequently, in my job as a marine engineer, I was sent by my employer to a course at Rolls-Royce specifically on running and repairing Olympus gas tubines. It was meant mainly for skilled mechanics and was not what I would describe as university level stuff.
many posts here assume that it's the heat of the tire that is being converted to electricity. In fact, it's the flexing of the tires that is being converted
That is not what TFA said
I'm not sure whether it will work effectively, but let's wait and see.
Save the wait; it won't.
Living on Earth may be expensive, but it includes an annual free trip around the Sun.
