maybe ok for baseline drivers.
But what if I plug in a three year old module to my new phone.
It wants to load old drivers incompatible with current OS revision.

Better to load a device ID of some sort and let the phone go get the proper drivers from a signed website

Or this:

http://www.incrediblethings.co...

More than movies, Football and Soccer games and who could leave out porn in a discussion of this nature.

we are not aware of any of these handheld systems that collect color data in addition to 3D geometry.

http://www.creaform3d.com/en/t...

http://www.artec3d.com/hardwar...

http://www.vorum.com/english/p...

I am sure there are others.
Having used all three of the above linked devices, the key is in the software. The hardware is but a small piece of the puzzle.

Having seen the bamboo scaffolding in both Hong Kong and China first-hand, the bigger issue (from my point of view) is not the energy absorption, but rather the assembly / erection. Unlike steel scaffolding the has a defined assembly, bamboo tends to be assembled by lashing together the various bits with inconsistent amounts of rope, twine or those plastic packing strips.

The problem here is that you are at the mercy (moreso) of he who assembled the scaffolding. If they were cheap or in a hurry things may fall apart. I was in Hong Kong during a severe wind storm around 5 years ago. It was bad enough that on the news they were advising ALL residents of all of Hong Kong to stay inside unless urgent.

Several sets of scaffolding fell down during that storm.

re:
"you need to make thicker strands of glass to make the fibers strong enough to not break"

Not so far as I recall.

Because Glass is an inherently brittle substance, the way you overcome this is by making many more SMALLER strands.
That way you can remove the defective ones more easily during manufacture. That is in fact the whole principle of fiberglass.

A single cylinder of glass will crack starting at a defect and working it's way out ... a cylinder the size of a pop-can for instance is guaranteed to have some flaws across many cross sections. If you use the same amount of material but with smaller bits with individual cross-sections more like a typical USB cable, the likelihood of finding a defect at any given cross-section goes way down. As such when a 5 or 10 out of 100 strands fail, you still maintain 90% of the theoretical strength. As the fibers get smaller (to a limit) your strength approaches the theoretical as you effectively eliminate the effects of the internal defects that cannot be removed.

Lets not forget directional strength based on the weaves used. This has ALWAYS been and still is a distinguishing factor between (long) fiber based composites and their homogeneous counterparts.

A good designer can take this into account to a make a part that is stronger, cheaper and lighter.

A poor designer can add "Carbon Fiber Roof" to the list of specifications and increase the price.

Try getting out of North America.
They are all over the place in Europe.

I travel for work and there are lots of great ideas out there if we could see past our own cubicle walls.

Not just standing desks, but hydraulic ones that allow you to switch from sitting to standing throughout the day with little effort to "re-configure" the workstation.

Most ISPs don't promise/guarantee a static IP, but frequently that is effectively the case.
Combined with browser and version, screen res, OS version, and regional settings ... they can guess that the user is the same one.

If they have people there smarter than me (and I guess they do) they'll be using that info to link potentially different cookies as suspect same cookies.

As a Canadian (and a pretty awesome one at that) I do not support this statement.

Perhaps not as good as it once was ... however ... when I retire regardless of the number of years I put in (I'm 39 and have been working there 13 years) I get nothing from my employer.

The whole concept of a pension in the private sector (in particular in tech) is all but gone.

Yes and no to the 40 years.

If they live another 40 years, the total they take out will likely be greater than what they put in. And certainly better "return on investment" than those who work to 60 and get full pay but die at 62.

My father was a teacher ... retired a little on the early side. There is a correlation (not suggesting causality) between retiring earlier and living longer.

Some studies suggest those capable of retiring earlier have lives outside of work and that is what gives them purpose and a meaning and purpose to go on. Those who work until forced into retirement often ONLY have their work and when it's gone ... so are they.

Too much crap in the media.
In the race to be first with the story, half of what I read in a breaking story in the first 24 hours is half speculation / utter crap presented as fact.

Generally I am for society working it out on their own ... for "journalism"... the way it has been going, I would love to see the following:

1) Mandatory and obvious front and center RETRACTIONS and CORRECTIONS when they F-up details of the story.
2) Some sort of punishment for both the journalist and the publication that present the story.
3) Funds from punishment could be used to fix the situations they caused*

*Restitution to innocent victims of bull$hit. - for example.

If a journalist does not do due diligence before releasing a story and the result is that someone's life is put at risk ... that is a very serious offence.

If they did that, you wouldn't be able to afford to buy goods anymore

Wrong. At least if they did things fairly. The cost of goods would go up, but we would be paying less (Fuel/State/City) tax that was subsidizing (up until the hypothetical change) the truckers.

The point is it would just move the burden around. It is a zero sum problem. If they charge truckers more, they charge all of us less and the difference to our taxation will make up the difference to the product differences.

Assistant-sort is by far the least work though.