Or the Lightning connector was selected because it was superior (it really is nice) and allows Apple to limit what accessories are made for iOS devices. Apple are control freaks - the Lightning connector gives them more control.

It is more likely that Apple designed USB-C at the same time they designed the Lightning connector. They opted for the Lightning connector and decided to gift USB-C. It is in Apple's best interest for USB to have a good connector.

Looking at how horrible the USB3 connectors are, it all makes sense. USB 3.1 was announced far to quickly for it to have been planned at the time USB 3.0 was being specified. And there was no design debate - the new connector was basically just announced. Looks like someone delivered a fully developed USB-C connector to the USB standard committee and it was enough of an improvement to warrant a new version.

While you are correct, the article is likely talking about all conversions when powering common DC powered appliances. So 24VDC -> 120VAC -> 5VDC. In this scenario, the 20% to 40% could be realized. It all depends on how crappy the other power supplies are. By minimizing the change in voltage you allow the cheap DCDC converters to work more efficiently.

In Japan, this is exactly what is done. Insurance rates increase once your car is beyond a certain age. You do not see many old cars driving around because they cost more to operate then newer vehicles. At lest this is what my Japanese co-worker had to say.

The article was based on observed vehicles - not on registered vehicles. People who could not afford to drive to work did not have their vehicles included in the survey. So in a way, miles driven was taken into account.

Yes, you are absolutely correct. Now lets do the same thing with the term "terrorism".

A two-body bullet? Impressive. Thanks for the link.

If they are using a two-body bullet then there are plenty of ways they could control it. For example, directing a slow burn solid fuel "jet".

The mass could be moved forward and back without changing the direction of the bullet - so long as the bullet is rotating. If it stops rotating, say by hitting an object, then it would absolutely start to tumble. But I was referring to moving the mass perpendicular to that. Basically a pendulum inside the bullet. This would result in the bullet tumbling right away if not controlled. But if controlled, could be used to direct the bullet - at least in theory.

More likely they slightly adjust the centre of gravity while the bullet is rotating. Adjusting the mass internally would be simpler and more reliable then fins.

I was using v2 of the router but that should not make a difference. Apple devices use multicast DNS for device discovery. I found that the router would not bridge mDNS packets between the wired and wireless domains. They would at first but eventually they cut out. This can prevent your iPhone from talking with your AppleTV. From the user's perspective, the iPhone is at fault when in reality it is the network.

There were also problems with multiple routers on the same network. A Netgear suppled service (forgotten which one) would conflict the same service on another router when attached to the same network. Eventually one of the routers would crash. But first DHCP would stop working. Caused all sorts of problems.

The routers are great but somehow Netgear really screwed up the firmware. It is possible the latest versions are fine, but then so is OpenWRT.

In my experience many problems can be attributed to networking. Most wireless routers have crap support for device discovery. I have some WNDR3700 routers are they were constantly requiring reboots. The only solution was to install a basic OpenWRT firmware - then they were great.

So when a device can not connect to another, or freezes when communicating over the network - check your wireless network. Many problems that are realized on portable devices can actually be tracked back to other devices entirely.

No, jolts are caused by acceleration - either positive or negative. If the train was to cut power and naturally decelerate then it would be noticed due to the significant friction at that speed. But simply leveling off the speed would not induce any noticeable jolts.

For the mandatory car analogy - it would be less noticeable then when you remove your foot from the accelerator pedal when driving at low speed (and accelerating at 0.5 m/s).

The high price of oil likely played a bigger factor then nuclear power in China. With the lower price for oil, consumption will go back up for 2015. The high price lead to some investment in non-carbon energy sources but that investment has since stalled.

You really do not pay extra for the Windows license. Twenty to thirty bucks amounts to 1-2% of the final purchase price. It is very cheap. From the manufacturer's perspective, this gives them reduced distribution, support, and inventory costs witch would otherwise be added to the product price. Not surprising if the Windows computer is actually cheaper.

The real reason for getting this laptop is because it's a nice laptop with components that are well supported in Linux. And it is highly likely that Google will continue to support, or require the component designers continue to support, Linux into the foreseeable future.

Usability of the scroll wheel as a center button varies greatly from mouse to mouse. With some mice it is impossible to use without scrolling and with others it is ok. My current mouse, the M525, is poor - but tolerable once you get used to it. My previous mouse, some generic Dell mouse, was much better.

One should go to a computer shop and try them out. Do not assume they are all horrible just because some are.