That's not to say the study was totally useless, but the objection is fairly striking. Today. Oh well, indeed the decision to run the study was taken 80 years ago -and really it shows...

I have a Samsung Galaxy Note that definitely accepts handwriting reasonably (and that, not being capable to gain root control, I'll abandon as soon as I find a reasonably open alternative).
On android you don't need Samsung techno anyway, you already have apps like Myscript Smartnotes (closed source but no Gapps) working as well...

Maybe it will work from within the android wrapper in Jolla Sailfish OS?
I'll try it as soon as I receive the tablet (not having their phone)...

yes, slashdoted at this time :-)

Now this indeed may become possible, thanks to the current boost in sensitivity in DSLRs 8-)

Indeed I see no must-have. Even worse, most of the time the evolution is some ah-yes-now-they-added-a-GPS-like-on-the-phones!
Go shell out $7000 for the extra GPS...

Show me a multispectal focal plane, leaving RGB in the dust forever: there I'll bring you $10K.

Exactly. And if the 'ordinary' DSLR do become a niche too, all those here now saying 'my good old camera X is enough' just won't find any replacement, not a single one, in a couple of years, for all the DSLR costs will have rocketed to Leica or even Hasselblad levels.
Anyone with a Hasselblad here? For years these have been a dream for me, and now its one of the very first dreams I know I'll never realize.
Even more, Hasselblad now has lost pace with a number of supporting accessories, like memories, and, one would even say, proper zooms.
That is what is feared, at least by the OP.
Compare that with the situation just a couple of years ago, where one could imagine far bigger evolutions than 'just more pixels than last year' -multispectral imaging comes to mind, which would have just erased the mere notion of color temperature adjustment, for instance.
This kind of future is just vanishing if the photo industry is drowning the way the OP describes...

Why did you post AC? I miss a /. friend now :-)

I think the thermal inertia of a big metallic rail must be, say,10000 times the one of a tree leaf.
Or maybe 100 000 ?

While I'm concerned about everything Google (and concerned I'm, deeply), I fear during all your years of study you just didn't allow yourself to consider the level and kind of sensors Google has thrown in: they currently restitute no less than the entire surrounding, in 3D and real-time.
I'd dare say all other automotive OEMs preferred baselining much, much simpler sensors, à la magnetic detector following buried mag loops, or radars to follow the previous vehicle, all things giving monodimentional, extremely minimal input.
Which is why they end in considering only dedicated expressways, etc.
Google's bet is they'll just skip these steps.
And, maybe you don't see it, but the mere fact Google car exists now, *prevents* them to happen. Which mayor would invest in a complex dedicated driveway when 80% of his electorate will *believe* Google cars would be better? (I intentionally stressed 'believe', because it's enough for an election)

Not specially. It depends on the satellite altitude. For low orbits, a 1-m telescope is vastly sufficient for 25-cm resolutions.
Maybe you are confused with Geostationary orbits, where indeed enormous mirrors would be required to get hi-res (GEO stays interesting because of its permanence : only from tyere you can get a "movie"; from low orbits it's images "on the fly")

I work in Europe and we happen to apply patents, the most important of which are extended in the US, China and various countries according to our competition.
Earlier this year, I had an issue with extending one of my patents to China.
I got a formal letter in perfect english (not in Chinese mind you), raising an issue within the submitted text that indeed rendered it not really patentable.
With the approbation of our IP expert I proposed a redacted text, recognizing the issue and suggesting our new redaction would solve it.
Just two weeks after I got a second, more elaborate reply, still in an english better than mine, that commented my text more in detail and still pointed up a non-patentable point. We prepared a second comment. (at that point, in China like in most other places, if the patent is still rejected there is no more appeal)
One week later, our patent was accepted in China —with a wording much better than in any of the other countries we applied for, including the original language.

I don't wish to conclude on the Chinese potential, on Communist government handling of things vs ours, or whatever.

But some comparisons are telling...

Thanks. Just this, thanks, but sincerely.

not always just in highly secure facilities.
In France the bank associated to the national post office -one you wouldn't expect recruiting geniuses- does present such a variable keypad when you want to access your account, and even more: you must move the mouse over each digit without clicking, basically following a path (a bit like on some phone unlock interfaces) but one that is different each time...

Very well replied. Now I think imminent changes in the Gulf Stream are more difficult to actually check Comparing this to the remark above (some more warm days will make or kill the growing season), we are facing a hard time...