Comment Re:Flight controls instead? (Score 1) 506
This is exactly what I was talking about - thanks for the link!
This is exactly what I was talking about - thanks for the link!
Personally I'd like to get a car that has controls similar to a jet fighter - or even more basic if it's all drive-by-wire anyway. Gimme a throttle lever in one hand, and a twist stick for proportional steering in the other - or combine them. More display room and less clutter of a wheel.
Yeah, I got bashed up pretty good too - but I was just too damn nauseous to care
Same as if a well trained diver in a dry-suit decided to ride out a hurricane. If he had a re-breather system and enough O2 and other gases to sustain the system - maybe drop a line bristling with tanks a little ways down? Leave enough slack between the buoy the tanks and you and maybe you can swap when needed? He could adjust his buoyancy to stay just below the crazy weather and read a water-proofed Kindle. Well, that and he might want to coat whatever exposed flesh he has to the water with petroleum or silicone goop. He might need a bag of fresh water, too - and god help him if he has to take a dump or whizz during the time he's in the water - but aside from those little complications? Meh.
Granted I assume a lot here since there was once I was going diving off the coast of Cancun - and OHMYFUCKINGGOD were the waves ridiculous. I was about to puke all over the deck till my dive buddy said "Don't stay on the boat - get in the water and go to about 8 feet. The desire to retch will subside. If you stay on the boat you'll only want to die." He was right. As soon as I was at about 8 feet it was serenity. I looked above to see the ladder to the boat leaving the water and plunging and saying to myself "wow, that's gonna be a fun ride coming back out of the water." The 76 minutes below were awesome - the 15 trying to get back into the boat? - The nausea came back with a vengeance and I blew chunks...
But it got me to thinking - anything able to get below the tossing waves should be perfectly fine to ride out a storm. It's being prepared to stay submerged that long and all the complications that entails - up to and including taking on enough nitrogen that even at 15 feet you may have to decompress a while (I don't remember if that would happen or not since 15 feet is the safety stop for rec diving? That and you could use mixed gasses at that depth that can be at times pure O2. But yeah, why not a dry suit with the right plumbing, a water-bag and protection for exposed flesh to the salt water? Hell, I'd do it on a dare just to see if I could do it - calm weather first, of course
And a youTube vid of other people that already did it. Hope Skysense didn't get a patent on it - unless it was earlier than these guys...
In fact - a thread from two years ago on the subject...
DIY drone people have been playing around with this idea for a while. A neighbor of mine was playing with it over a year ago but lost interest. inductive charging for model quad-copters. Seems like Skysense is the first group to put it into practice with some $$$ behind it though.
It would be nice if someday before our elected officials try passing dumb-ass legislation, they take into consideration all the time and effort the taxpayers are going to pay to implement and then summarily rescind the stupid things - especially on one or more appeals.
Just like the laws requiring you to proffer a drivers license to track and purchase over the counter decongestant containing the base element for meth. It hasn't stopped the number of meth labs, but boy has it bolstered revenues for various IT groups managing that boondoggle via our tax dollars.
If it was really key they ban large sized soft-drinks - just put your money where your mouth is (literally) and just outright ban non-nutritive foods altogether. Of course that won't happen nor would it work, but the road leads to the same conclusion - or wall if you're using Apple maps. (Oh c'mon. That was funny.)
If they really wanted to make a difference on the war against obesity, how about laying the smack-down on High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) in general? Or putting parents on naughty lists who have overweight children? "What? Little Johnny's BMI is in the "obese" range? Then off to FOSTER CARE!!! Oh wait. Dad who is drunk and beats his wife apologizes and the court will give him back the kid anyway having something to do with biological parent vs. best interests of the child... but I digress...
I know, make being overweight _illegal_!! Just like trying to ban guns! Make being fat illegal and owning a gun illegal. Being naked in public is already illegal so let's make it a tri-fecta!! PASS A LAW TO MAKE NAKED GUN CARRYING FAT PEOPLE ILLEGAL! THINK OF THE FAT NAKED CHILDREN! No. Wait. That involves a whole set of other laws...
(Yes. I am being facetious on several of those points. You get to guess which ones, though)
Boutique (read that "private, self-pay") physicians will do that as part of their service. But if you are part of the rank-and-file hitting an outpatient arm of a hospital? I totally agree with you. I work as a interface programmer for all sort of medical systems and can say they are at least _trying_ with the EMR's to give something resembling personal service by sending automated reminders and correspondence to you. But it's still just another form-letter in the end. I mean really - if you knew the reality of the caseload of the average physician and physician's assistant in even a medium-size outpatient care center it makes your average vet seem like a lazy freeloader. Don't get me wrong - I love my vet - but the differences are staggering.
Who knows. Maybe the integration of health devices tied together via smartphones and the like where the data gets funneled to your physicians ASSISTANT, then when certain things start going out of whack you might get a call... Maybe. Then again, who knows if the high reading from your glucometer won't just be yet another e-agent protocol that bubbles your status to the top of the heap of 10K other patients where you get the automated page "Yo! Take your insulin!". Methinks I want to develop these kind of things for vets to monitor their clients animals. Probably good money to be made there. I can envision e-collars that have a sensor suite to monitor the health and well being of pets. But I digress...
I still am a firm believer in doing everything you can to take care of your own health monitoring - and be educated about things that affect you. We are ALL numbers and items on actuarial tables as far as providers and payors are concerned right up until you sit in the chair and actually _speak_ to your physician. I try not to wait until the last minute during that "oh-shit" moment and have to read up on a lot of things so I can be yet another armchair QB for my doctor
Oh and not buy an iMac because I once bought an iPad and couldn't figure out how to connect a mouse? You're too precious... And I happened to do just that for grins and giggles on a old iPad by modding the Bluetooth stack to work with it. So I guess YOU are too stupid to see some things are actually possible.
And yeah, "Mr. I Love Helping Sheep Over Fences While Naked", I bought the Pro in Vegas where it was a one-time super deal - which was only a couple hundred off and was still about the same price as my MacBook Air - but I wanted to see it and Geek out a bit with it to see how well it the IDE and compilers I work with on a daily basis.
So let me be clear. Please read slowly so you get it this time - I bought the Surface Pro NOT the Surface RT. Did you get that or should I post it in all caps for you?
(Geeze. Why I let dicks like you rile me up in the morning is beyond me. Ah well. Score one for you, tard...)
Really? I'm that stupid in that the reason I bought the PRO was because I work with medical integration software where RT wasn't what I was looking for? Maybe I should be a little more clear to armchair quarter back name-calling assholes such as yourself who are quick to leap out and judge others? As I have just now joined the armchair name calling assholes to fire a shot back at you?
So Peaches, my original post still stands. I don't compare tablets to laptops as a general rule ass-hat, so get over yourself. It's always nice to wake up to smarmy little posts like yours knowing there are plenty of dipshits like you out there to contend with before I've had my first coffee. Get a clue whack-tard then feel free to come back. Sorry I wasn't clear enough for your righteous "always jumping to conclusions" self.
Always a pleasure meeting fine dolts like yourself...
Seriously. I love the MacBook Air I got a couple of years ago. The thing works very well, and even runs the occasional VMWare Fusion image of Windows 7 I need to run occasionally off of a portable thunderbolt drive. On a whim I got one of the earlier Surface tablets when the wife and I were in Vegas and they had a Kiosk where they were practically giving them away - but for the life of me still cannot use it for anything truly productive.
Trade in a MacBook Air for a surface?! Sorry Microsoft. You've been a day late and a dollar short ever since Ballmer pissed on the idea of tablets and smartphones and Apple smoked you and ate you for breakfast. Apple would have to skullf**k a small, disabled child onstage during their next keynote to even _think_ of falling behind enough for you to catch up to relevancy.
Microsoft - As long as I can virtualize your OS, take a snapshot and rollback when your OS takes a dive and run it all on a machine that, you know, _works_ I won't buy another piece of hardware branded by you. Ever.
And as another poster mentioned, "While supplies last." Really? Wow, even with Steve "Developers Developers Developers" Ballmer gone, you _still_ have a great sense of humor.
Indeed. It's like a sheep and wolf discussing what's for dinner. The sheep might _think_ it has a say, but when it comes right down to it...
His proposed fix is a little too wordy. We should use more brevity and make the meaning the forefathers intended more direct and precise. Instead of his proposed change being:
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms when serving in the Militia shall not be infringed."
Should simply be:
"The right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed."
Why make it so complex and leave it open for conjecture?
See, that's the thing. I have a friend that does exactly that - but he went one step further and just parked a small no-frills car at the airport and leaves it there. I'm always surprised at how easy it is to get in and out of small GA airports. But again - it ain't cheap by any stretch. "Save Money" and "Own a Plane" are never two things that live together well - but I will say it's damned convenient with the scenario you describe. In the Terrafugia I would just be too damn worried of getting my wings pranged by some idiot driver while trying to get to the runway. One small accident will erase every gain you might have had by not having to tie down your plane at the airport. And forget the accident - a small piece of debris or pothole will incur some substantial A&P time...
The flying cars try to do both things well (fly and drive) and are good at neither. Of course the definition of "well" is subjective. I live in Albuquerque - and to me the test would be what are the performance numbers of something that can take off at a runway that's about 7K ASL already and 100 degrees in the summer. Those pie-in-the-sky numbers manufacturers try to play to don't exist in real life.
And if I want to go sub-100MPH in a plane that drives I'd just get the PAL-V here http://pal-v.com/the-pal-v-one... Reminds me of a "canyon carver" and gyro rolled into one. Again even this is WAY too expensive and has similar suck-numbers for useful load after gas in the tank - but does look like a lot of fun - but it too suffers from the "Oh dear god don't let the idiot without insurance hit my plane!"
It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do. -- Jerome Klapka Jerome