Asking myself the same question, I went with MDisc technology, in the BluRay capacity, in addition to my hard drive backups. MDisc uses an inorganic pigment as opposed to the organic dyes that are common on CD/DVD/BluRay recordables (and degrade over time).

I'll do an MDisc burn every year and move it offsite, to keep with the 4TB ZFS drive I rotate offsite weekly. The MDisc won't get my mp3 or mp4 files, but the stuff I can't recreate.

My best idea currently is to write PAR files of loop-back mounted LUKS volumes and include the PAR software source and ISO of the distro on the disc, in case I need the data in 20 years (emulators should be readily available for 2015 hardware).

I needed a BluRay writer anyway, so I went with this LG and it's been a great drive so far, and at the right price point for me.

I don't think it's an interferometer. It's a standard diffraction lens, just like the Canon one you linked, that produces a real image, not an interference pattern. You could stand at the focal point and see an image.

It would be an interferometer if you put a ring of telescopes on the rim instead of at the focus.

So long as you're not looking at something really close, the little bit of parallax you get by going around the planet isn't going to cause too many problems. And if you're looking at something where it does matter, you just take shorter exposures and stack them. As a bonus you get 3D measurements.

Until the fines are set to a level to remove all profit and THEN put a punishment on top, large business will continue to flout the law because it's more profitable.

You're absolutely right on the theory, but then take the next step to recognize that it's the purpose of government to ensure their profits and help them take money from us (in addition to the FCC taking money from us directly and giving it to the telco corporations).

This is evidenced by these fines never having been at a level such as you describe and, more recently, the move to no-plead agreements between prosecutors and corporations. You'll be shouting from your wheelchair in a retirement home that the government should increase fines on corporations to be proportional to their income, unless the fundamental bases of the system are changed.

Of course, if you do something wrong on the scale of millions of dollars of damage, you go to prison. If a corporation does something similarly wrong, they pay out some pocket change. Because "corporations are people, my friend."

Every dollar store sells USB wall chargers

Speaking of that - maybe everybody knows this already but it had escaped my attention - I was getting annoyed that my phone charges very fast with the Samsung charger/cable but rather slowly with the well-rated 2A charger I bought off Amazon.

The issue was my dollar-store cables. Long story short, there is 28/28 gauge wire inside cheap cables and the resistance means they can only pull 500mA. The electronics at both ends are smart enough to figure this out. What you need is a
28/24 cable and then you can get a fast charge.

I'm using Galaxy Charging Current Lite to measure my existing USB cables and tossing the ones that can't handle at least 1.3A. This helps with my over-stuffed box of USB cables too.

I'm betting the phone allows M2M sim cards or something similar which would allow the authentification and encoding to happen in hardware on both the phone and hotspot/VoIP servers.

It would also solve handoff issues when moving from one access point to another.

If you do wish to bring that concern forward, do make it against the OP, and then I'll make a modified reply to them once they do so, should I feel it is warranted.

I'm not sure why I would have to. The article stated the government of California which is the only entity that could be by California. This is the context the OP's comment should be examined in. You stated "in California" which is not the same thing but could encompass the same things.

Absent that, I hold them to their words as expressed, which was not engaging in any such differentiation, but simply lambasting California in the stereotypical fashion that would lead to outrage if it were another locale.

No, it is clear from the context of the reply and even just the summery that the GP was talking about the government of California.

Me, I was just highlighting how they didn't make the differentiation, but painted the whole state with a broad brush. I guess you didn't get the point of my words. Please understand, you didn't get my purpose at all, so no, you were not comprehending what I was speaking about. I'm sorry that I didn't make it clear to you.

Ok, you do understand that there is/can be a difference between from or in a geographical area and caused by the leaders of that geographic area right? In other words, I understood your point or purpose but showed how it was not relevant to the situation due to nuances in language. Now if I say go get me some ice cream, and you say why, I would expect any other person wishing to comment to be commenting to your why within regard to my telling you to get me ice cream. It's just how language works. It would be silly for someone to chime in with "Your wrench is the wrong size" as a reply to your "why". In order for their comment to have bearing on the conversation, it would have to apply the presupposition that I told you to get me ice cream in order to be congruent with the conversation. Made "in" is simply not made "by" therefore bringing in the problem.

Which part of what he said is not true? Talking points or not, he did not mention the mass exodus from California so your setting up strawman just to knock down seems like a convoluted ploy to ignore the realities mentioned.

In California and by California are not the same things even though they sound similar.

I'm not supporting the parent's position but please understand that you are not speaking about the same things.

Actually, a lot of the state's got rid of the air brake endorsements. I was completely shocked when I was purchasing a class 7 medium duty single axle box truck that came stock with air brakes as it's a non-CDL truck and I was under the old assumption that the air brakes made it a CDL truck because of the endorsement. My state got rid of the requirements and I can no longer find them on the FMCSA website and a search shows a lot of other state's do not bother any more.

I think it has to do with technology that is mandatory now like ABS and self adjusters. But I have no idea why it went away or when it did.

This is the stupidest concept application I have ever heard and you are not the first person to do it. You are likely following the uninformed logic of someone else so I will not fault you directly.

All vehicles will have their fuel mileage impacted by the weight of the vehicles. All larger and heavier vehicles will by default pay more from the simple act of being used. The roads are repaired with taxes collected from fuel sales and either more friction from their foot print (less aerodynamic) or power needed to overcome the extra weight will cause more fuel to be consumed thereby already increasing the amounts they pay by default. There is no way around it.

If we compare two identical drives made at 100 miles a day, 5 days a week. and a hybrid car gets 45 mpg average of fuel use and a 1/2 ton pickup truck uses 20 mpg (both a low end combined city/highway average for the vehicle types), we will see how much of a difference there is. Let's take California's fuel tax for comparison sake. California has a 35.3 cents per gallon state fuel tax and an18.4 cents per gallon federal tax obligation (most of which they get back in highway trust fund projects). So the hybrid drives 500 miles a week at 45 MPG and uses 11.11 gallons of gas. The Pickup truck drives 500 miles a week and uses 25 gallons of fuel. In a weeks time, the hybrid pays $3.92 in state gas taxes and $2.40 in federal gas taxes. This is $6.32 a week in total or $328.64 for the year. The truck pays $8.82 a week in state and $4.60 in federal gas taxes. Combined, this is $13.42 a week in gas taxes or $697.84 a year in gas taxes for the same amount of driving.

Notice how the heavier pickup is more than double what the lighter hybrid pays? This is compounded even more when larger trucks are in the mix and more fuel is used. And this is before the various sales taxes which can be different county to county are applied but those increase with volume also.

You can purchase an 18 wheeler for private personal use and drive it as a camper. The problem is the federal law designates anything with a gross vehicle weight rating of more than 10,000 pounds as a commercial vehicle or if the vehicle is designed to seat more than 16 people including the driver. There are exceptions for private non-commercial uses. Some 3/4 ton pickup trucks and almost all 1 ton or better pickup trucks fall within this category. The state however does the licensing and can be a little loose with these definitions pertaining to cuts in highway trust money from the feds. But they don't have much wiggle room and it's easier to just include everything. This is the reasons for the pickup truck license issue and it is likely the same in most states.

What I find interesting is that many of these people, and probably most of the people upset over the laws and rules trying to be enforced, are the same people who think businesses need strict regulation and so on. Most of these people got what they wanted and are now realizing how much what they wanted sucks. People like me who hold that this excessive regulation makes it harder to competition to start and compete, that think this excessive regulation benefits not hurts the established businesses, who think less regulations but more proper and enforced or effective regulation would be the best solution, are called racist conservative libertarian kooks who know nothing. And even when those who do the calling get ensnared in their own traps, they will not admit they were wrong or even the opposing views were the slightest bit right. It's just the man putting their boots on their necks with little to no lessons learned.

Bell had talked to Watson on the first ever phone call, in Boston, just after Bell had patented the telephone.

really? He patented it before ever testing it? Same shit, different millennium, eh?

It's a good thing Americans don't have tails or they'd usually be seen with them tucked between their legs, anytime air security is involved.

So they're buying a GPL test case in order to try to invalidate it with their army of lawyers and lobbyists to scuttle the Android alliance so they can FUD their way in with WinPhone 10, all while looking like an OLAP services enhancement?