Comment Or maybe... (Score 3, Interesting) 74
...the docs were leaked by spy agencies, because the Metro version is *easier* to spy on?
...the docs were leaked by spy agencies, because the Metro version is *easier* to spy on?
See also the first entry in this list.
Can you
...Imagine a world in which your wristwatch or other wearable device communicates directly with your online profiles, storing information about your daily activities where you can best access it â" all without requiring batteries.
All to well, I'm afraid. What I can't imagine is what the hell I or anybody else would want that? I'm not much of a Luddite, but being constantly online is just not part of my lifestyle, and seeing the quality of the online natterdom, I feel no attraction at all, on the contrary. It's just like having a million TV channels, all of them showing Big Brother and Coronation Street and nothing else, 24/7.
Just so that people stop sending me links to conspiracy theories about it.
Since when did facts put an end to conspiracy theories?
They're talking about very short ranges, like under 2 meters. This may not be too useful.
What we need in wireless power is for the inductive charging pad industry to get their act together. There are at least three competing standards (QI, PMA, and WiPower/Rezence), so they're not widely used. Last February, the PMA and WiPower groups agreed to develop multi-mode charging pads that will power both PMA and Rezence devices. Then there are some Samsung devices that will charge from either a Qi or a Rezence pad, but not a PMA pad.
whatever is above them in downtown Seattle.
Five city blocks (low-rise -- doesn't look to be anything over eight stories tall), a quarter-mile of the Alaska Way Viaduct, the entrance to the downtown ferry and water taxi docks, and two entrances to one of the larger docks at the Port of Seattle. If the tunnel is deeper than I think, or the soil is more liquid, add another seven city blocks (also low-rise), one park, the ferry docks themselves, part of the Port of Seattle dock, and maybe the football stadium.
Yes, disassembling from behind would be cheaper, if it worked. If anything went wrong, it would be far, far more expensive.
I calculated from the other end: assuming that the Bitcoin market represents an efficient market (ie. sale prices are only slightly above production prices), and that the marginal cost of mining hardware is 0:
- A bitcoin sells for $584
- Mining a block generates 25 bitcoins
- 144 blocks are mined per day
- 63000 transactions per day
584 * 25 * 144 / 63000 = $33.37 per transaction.
+1 Dune reference
It's not surprising that herds of cows have a social structure. They're herd animals. It may be hard to see in a feeding pen situation without this kind of tracking, but when they have a lot of room to move around, groups form. It's a bit harder to see this in a group of uniformly bred dairy cattle, though.
Horse herd social structure is well understood. There are buddies, little groups, and an overall hierarchy. If you want to see the hierarchy, set out food buckets, one at a time, and see who eats first. The order will usually be the same each time you do this.
Even chickens have a "pecking order".
Under Amazon's retail agreement, the publisher's set the book price that amazon paid. Amazon then set the price for customers - amazon had various prices for books, rather than a flat rate. Some were loss leaders - a common enough tactic in the retail world, big book chains do it all the time - but amazon's ebook division was profitable on its own merits - something a DOJ investigation confirmed. That's not dumping, and there were other competitors in the ebook space that were also profitable. If the publishers weren't happy with their margins - which were comparable to other retail models - they were fully entitled to go to amazon and negotiate new retail rates individually, just like they do with other book retailers.
Apple looked at that model, saw they weren't going to make their usual profit margin, and went to the big publishers. Apple said 'we'll let you set the final customer price, we'll take 30%, and an agreement that you won't let any other seller undercut us'. The publishers saw this is as a chance to raise prices and make more profit, and stitch up amazon at the same time. The publishers went to amazon all around the same time, and said, 'these are the new terms. Agree to them, or no more ebooks'. Given Amazon then was facing a choice between no ebooks at all, and the new terms, they rolled over.
Collusion to raise prices is illegal, for very good reason - it defeats the purpose of free markets, that of delivering the best product for the lowest price. And that was what they did. Higher prices across the board, more profit for apple and the big publishers, with no improvement to the product, through collusion. If the publishers wanted higher prices, they could have charged them to amazon individually; or set up their own book store with higher prices. And that would have been competition. But they chose not to compete in the marketplace, but arrange a back-room stitchup deal to raise prices for customers. And all the publishers have now settled with the DoJ for doing so.
Apple could have competed with Amazon; there was nothing stopping them setting their own prices, and making it so easy to use that people would use them instead even if they were more expensive for some books. Or offer other value-added services. Or shock, actually compete on price, it's not like apple was some startup tight on cash! They chose not to do any of that. And now they have to pay for the harm they did - which was artificially higher prices for books. They didn't increase competition; they made a deal with the publishers to lock in a higher profit margin for themselves and nobble their competitors at the same time. That's the exact opposite of competition.
Yet, the science around sales and marketing is far more useful than any physical science.
Sales and marketing is a basic function of all life. Animals broadcast themselves to find mates. You sell yourself when making social connections, as you are doing right now when you comment on these boards.
The knowledge within the article is going to be more rewarding to you than what you'll find in any physics journal.
It is only the most douchey, self-hating libertarian that feels they are above the role of sales and marketing that is fundamental to life. Those guys are complete losers, and completely happy about being losers. You'll find it a lot within outcast subcultures, such as nerds.
Compare this to more socially dominant alpha groups, such as fashionistas, where they actually closely follow news reports on which supermodel received which advertising campaign.
They do that because they understand that advertising and marketing represents a basic purpose of life.
Meanwhile, nerdy libertarians absolutely hate advertising themselves, because they think they're deserve social status without sales and marketing to go along with it.
The real world ramifications of the nerds hatred of sales and marketing including losing funding for the sciences, such as when the Superconducting Supercollider was canceled back in the 90's because scientists just couldn't kiss politician ass. They just simply couldn't do it.
If you nerds had any social IQ whatsoever, (instead of just sitting around being awesome by yourselves, because you're obviously so awesome!), you would be absolutely following articles like these.
What makes you think I'm not an engineer myself?
The "no wind" on an entire grid shit and the assumption that if stuff is offline it has to be because the energy source is unavailable for a start. A fairly dim first year student wouldn't be going on like that.
I'm gonna respond to your only verifiable claim
WTF?
I'm the one calling you out on your bullshit "there is no wind anywhere" rubbish and your "60GW of interconnect" lie. I've been too busy rubbing your face in your own filth and asking you to put up or stop lying to make any claims of my own.
Is your job running? You'd better go catch it!
