What the city slicker politicians and neo-econazies don't understand is that the 100W bulbs are useful.
You do realize that those "fascist, idiot, city slicker, neo-econazie politicians" you're referring to were in the Bush administration, don't you? (the ban was passed in 2007)
I installed similar switches in our previous house. We had no issues with CFLs. Perhaps some switches are better than others?
Heat Pumps don't work when it's below freezing.
Incorrect. Heat pumps work at outdoor temperatures well below freezing. Their efficiency does get lower as the temperature drops, however - though there are advanced units that work at acceptable efficiencies at any temperature.
Finally - a "smart wallet" that would actually be more convenient to use (or at least no less convenient) than the credit cards I already have in my wallet.
If you actually notified them of the modifications, I'm sure they would drop you in an instant.
I'm quite certain that existing regulations regarding warranties, emissions, etc. already contain clauses that limit an automaker's liability in the event that the vehicle is tampered with. Otherwise, someone could cut out the catalytic converter from their car, sell it (for the precious metals), and have the automaker replace it under warranty. Computer-based modifications would fall under the same category.
It's not that hard to be careful - just avoid the com.sun.* and sun.* namespaces. Eclipse even filters those out (of autocomplete and Organize Imports) in the default configuration.
Given their history, that wouldn't be surprising. I remember having to disconnect my dial-up Internet connection so I could dial in to Juno's servers to retrieve my email...
Not uncommon in older cities. My city (Grand Rapids, MI) is just getting close to finishing up a multi-decade, multi-hundred-million project to separate the two systems. It used to be that heavy rainfall would cause the sewage treatment plant to overflow. I know many other cities have faced similar challenges.
I thing somewhere there's a calculation that indicates that, if Moore's Law continues, the probability that this universe is a simulation running on a computer is greater than the probability we're in "real life". But I can't help but instinctively think it's fanciful.
That's a fascinating idea, but I don't understand how it could possibly work. How can you support the existence of such a computer using a characteristics of the "laws" inside of said computer? How would we know that the "real-world" laws of physics are anything like the supposed virtual ones that we experience?
Self-driving cars don't rely on GPS alone. Sensors and image recognition could easily detect incorrect GPS readings and bad map data. The failure mode might not be optimal - perhaps the car would stop and signal an error (including sending a notification to the central office) - but it'd hardly be catastrophic.
Failing power supplies can do plenty of damage on their own, without triggering an obscure SSD failure mode. I had a power supply (a long time ago - I think it was an AT power supply [maybe even XT]) that took out a lot of other hardware as it failed; my guess is that it sent a voltage spike to the components.
Though, it's been at least a decade since I've seen a power supply fail. I try to put all of my machines on good UPS's - a refurbished APC SmartUPS is not too pricey.
Sad day. Everyone be sure to raise a grog in their honor.
Maybe in the future, they can just all use one bus, and get rid of the wiring.
For power? How would that work?
Not connecting most things would mean there can not be a fire.
Unless the cooling fans, battery monitor system, etc. are among the things left disconnected...
I've noticed several design suggestions in your code.
