Re: ¡Bong!
I get that it's not meant to be serious...I just don't get why it's so unfunny
91 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Jun 2013
Regardless of accurate those calculations are, there is a key issue which you failed to factor in. It's all well and good looking at data requirements for one car's radio, but what happens when all the cars (or at least a big percentage of them) in a cell all compete for resources on the call base station?
My guess is that the BS will max out....and I can't see the networks increasing the capacity on all of their cells, and the underlying terrestrial network, just people can listen to the radio
I wonder what percentage of radio listening happens in cars...no stats to hand but I imagine it's quite high, possibly even the majority of all radio listening
I also wonder what percentage of cars are equipped with DAB-capable sets? again, no stats to hand, but I imagine it's pretty low. I know that a DAB radio came as an option when I bought my last car from new, but after reviewing the full options/costs list, I didn't take it.
"the companies already have this option at no cost by having your call automatically answered and playing their own recorded message."
At no cost to *them* - if they answer with a long pre-recorded announcement, then the caller is paying from the moment the message kicks in....and have you seen how much it costs to call an 0845 (as so beloved by so many companies these days) from a mobile?
"water, yeast and TIME...lots of time."
Or, Water and lots & lots of yeast to get the job done in far less time....probably resulting in a substandard brew IMHO. I've seen some wine kits which claim to complete fermentation in not many days, basically by putting tons of yeast in which will chew through the sugars in next to no time
The best watch i ever had as a young 'un was the Casio Jogging watch (c.1981). It looked like a calculator watch (and it was) but it also had a load of functions to help out runners, such as pedometer and more-sophisticated-that-the-norm stopwatch. How I *loved* that watch....
Nowadays, my main watch is mechanical automatic...waterproof, reliable, glow-in-the dark, even has a separate 24 hour hand to allow viewing of multiple time zones. And the nice thing about it is that it actually increases in value each year, which is something I've never been able to say about any silicon-based watch I've ever owned.
I live in the sticks, and power cuts here are common-ish.
One time I was sitting on the sofa and at the *exact* same time I pressed the button on the remote control to turn the TV off, a power cut happened and plunged the entire house into darkness.
For a brief moment, I felt like I held the world's most powerful remote control in my hand.
That whopping great golden goodby is, well, whoppingly great, but think about it for a minute....
He's bound up in NDA's and can't work for a rival company, to protect his last employer's interests. Effectively that means he may not be able to ply his trade again. That sort of situation is quite common, I believe, in senior management....upon leaving a suitably senior position, you may never actually be able to work again, hence the high-value kiss-off payment.
Although, as I said, the sum quoted here does seem on the high side
I agree with it being a good idea to replace the Monkey-Dancer-In-Chief, but who is the natural replacement? So much of the good, long-serving talent from within MS has jumped ship during Ballmer's reign.
From what I've heard/read from him, I would like to have seen Nathan Myhrvold at the helm, but I can't see that happening now
They could, but I suspect that a very small percentage of them would choose to move to Win8, thus preventing Microsoft from getting a Win 8 sale....which, ultimately, is what they're looking for
Much as I would love to wind Eadon up (where is he these days BTW?) and say I like Microsoft (which generally I do) I don't follow them fanboi-style. They've done a lot to turn me away from their products over the last year or so....and when I saw the words "Steve Ballmer said..." I realise why
A company running on ego? Maybe, but I suspect there's some BS in the fuel tank as well.
We survived the Blitz (well, WW2 in general) by funding intelligence work through the likes of Bletchley Park, SOE, etc.
And I'm sure that the security services had reasonable budget to fund their work against the IRA (through 14 Int, etc.)
The work that MI5/6 and CCHQ need to do nowadays is higher tech = higher cost = bigger budget.
There's no such thing as a new problem, but inflation is real
One thing that the Chines have is sheer weight of population. They can afford to throw people at something and if it fails, there are plenty more where they came from. It might sound harsh to say that they view the general populace as some almost inexaustable commodity, but if you look at their track record with things like mining and general industrial safety, I Think you'll get my point.
That being the case, you could imagine how they could afford to have a few shots at the more ambitious ventures, like a trip to Mars, without worrying too much about the human cost.
Having said that, such a mission would be so high profile, it would be hard for them to keep it under wraps. I can't see them launching 'x' suicide missions to Mars with no mention of launches, until they get it right, and then fanfare-ing their success only when they successfully land someone there
If someone put together a billion+ pixel stitched image of some landscape photographs taken down the road from my house, I'd be impressed.
The fact that these images originate from a remote controlled machine on *another f***ing planet* is total amazeballs with added awesome sauce.