"...the sensors in the front can identify white lines on the road, and keep the car between them, and also sense other vehicles around."
That's nothing new. RALPH was doing that twenty years ago.
30 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Sep 2011
@ first AC: I didn't read your full comment, just up to the part where you said these companies had to give up all interactive possibilities... And that's a lie. Just ask The guys at Green Felt or Gopherwood Studios. They make excellent games with only a scary amount of JavaScript. No flash to be seen.
I came here to ask that very question, but not as a joke.
My understanding of quantum computers is that they're somewhat equivalent to massively multicore computers, that can generate new cores as needed - although that idea comes from the book Factoring Humanity, which extrapolates the workings of a quantum computer based on the double slit experiment.
If that's right then a quantum graphics card might be better than a quantum CPU, since graphics cards are more transparently multicore to the software that's controlling them.
The device is constantly connected to the Internet, and constantly uploading your speech to the cloud for processing, then downloading the results. Ignoring the obvious question of what it does if there's a guest in the house with the same name as it...
"Alexa, would you pass the salt please?"
"I'm sorry Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that for you."
Ignoring that, what about the people who are on limited connections, let's say the basic BT broadband package at 4GB per month. How much of that is it going to take up?
I admit that the kind of person who buys this will probably be on an "unlimited" broadband package, but that's not the point.
So if I understand correctly about this Progressive Consumption Tax, then it's like VAT but charged in tiers like income tax is now, so a loaf of bread at a few quid might have 1% or 5% PCT, whereas a new VW Up! at about £10k might be, say 25% PCT, and a brand new £2 million Bugatti Veyron might be up to 100% PCT.
Is that right?
@Terry 6:
As someone else said while I was writing this: That's the problem. You don't have to click on anything. You browse to a page that has a dodgy ad and, voila, the ad exploits a vulnerability in Flash to drive-by download the virus exe to your system.
The advert itself might look like it's a blank white screen or an ad for the latest Norton or whatever.
I think the only way to stop this is for everyone to stop clicking on adverts. No exceptions. Then online advertising becomes unviable for whoever is paying the ad companies. So they stop paying.
Eventually, the ad men go out of business and the Internet is a better place without them.
I already turned off JavaScript in my primary browser because ads kept redirecting me to 'shag a neighbour' type websites without me doing anything but load a page on, say, a news or comedy website.
And as for backups, my best idea so far is a Linux server (raspberry pi with a USB hard disk or two) that drags files across from shared folders on my computer to a read-only network share that it holds, keeping old versions of files as long as the available disk space allows. That way all your files are backed up and you can go back to how any file was before it got encrypted.
That requires you to over provision your backup hard disk, of course, and you still need to nuke Windows if you get infected.
Sorry. That turned into more of a rant than I expected.
I think you might be right.
But seriously, a quick glance through MacTracker shows that of all the current Apple products, the Mac Mini is the least-recently updated, with the current model being the mid-2012. I wonder if we'll be getting a Mac Pro-style mini trashcan?
Yes, mine's the one with the Apple Almanac in the pocket.
What I don't understand is what this whole dot net framework thing does, apart from making my life (as someone who supports friends with these dot net apps) more of a pain than it needs to be. Why does an app written for 3.5 not work with 4 installed?? Why is a framework needed anyway? What is the benefit to it?
</rant> :)
YouTube does screen videos for copyright violations, but the content provider has to have an arrangement with Google. Disney doesn't care but the likes of NBC do, that's why every episode of every recent Disney show is on YouTube at least five times but there's no full episodes of quality content like, say, Heroes.
**Snicker**
How about a laser that points across under the mower from left to right, then is reflected by a tiny mirror slightly forward and slightly upward, repeat as needed to mulch the grass. It would cut the grass long then shorter and shorter with the different passes of the laser.
I don't know how powerful the laser would need to be, but I heard that a DVD burner laser is powerful enough to start fires if used (im)properly.
You can pay me in eBeer :)
Excellent :)
Now I have another question: taking the details from the Micra which has a 1.2 litre supercharged Miller engine, and (let's assume) it spits out about a third of its compression cycle, what advantage is there to the 1.2 Miller engine over a supercharged 800cc Otto cycle engine?
And when I say advantage, I mean other than to marketing people.
Correct me if I'm wrong, Sir Wiggum (or anyone else for that matter) but x86 is also known as CISC, or complete instruction set computer/ing, whereas ARM, PowerPC etc. are RISC or reduced instruction set computer/ing. And Apple not too recently jumped from PPC to x86 for their processors... Why do you describe x86 as crippled?
We really need a ? icon!
But would lightning be any issue if they're flying above the clouds? And if they're below the clouds, why does it have to conduct? I'm not being obtuse (at least not deliberately) but surely the carbon skin is an insulator so the lightning would find another route to ground... Which the plane is nowhere near when it's X thousand feet in the air.
Icon, just in case I'm wrong ;)
I'm posting this from my iPod touch. This device is the only reason I got an iPhone. I plan to upgrade to whatever iPhone is out when my contract runs out next year.
And to whoever's bleating about battery life: my 18-month old iPhone still runs for 2-3 days on a full charge... Just like when it was new.
YMMV, as they say, but that's my experience.